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Everything made to order
Viscose has a huge range of properties making it a versatile and popular fiber to work with.
Viscose is a very unique material. It is not a natural textile, neither is it completely man made. It is known as semi-synthetic, and is one of only a very few such fabrics. Viscose was the first artificial fiber to be created. It was made in the 1800's by French scientist Hilaire de Chardonnet. The British patent was taken out by scientists Edward John Bevan and Charles Frederick Cross, in the late 1800's. Viscose, also known as Rayon, was created as an artificial silk. A cheaper alternative which was somewhat easier to produce. Viscose is made from cellulose fiber, the main component in the wall of plants - wood pulp to be specific - which goes through a chemical process, dissolving this pulp with aqueous sodium hydroxide, with a presence of carbon disulphide. This is where the semi-synthetic categorization comes from. Although derived from a natural material, the creation of viscose is a chemical process. Other examples of semi-synthetic fabrics are seacell, which comes from seaweed, modal which comes most often from beech trees, and bamboo viscose which is made from bamboo grass.
We use digital printing methods on all of our fabrics. Dye sublimation techniques first print your design onto a sheet of transfer paper. Don't worry, we don't put a transfer onto your fabric. This specialist transfer paper bonds the eco-friendly inks deep into the fibers of your customized viscose fabric when heat is applied. This results in a beautiful, full-color HD print that will last for years to come. This leaves you with your printed viscose, with no transfer on the surface, giving you the original handle of the material, ready to use for your next home project or dressmaking venture. Due to the print process large areas of solid color may show minor blemishes or discoloration. This is to be expected and we would advise avoiding large solid blocks of color if possible.
There are a variety of finishing options when you order your customized viscose fabric. You can have your material cut on the line, which will remove any white edges that may appear around your printed design, or you can request it is sent to you as it comes, straight from the printer with those edges still there. If you would prefer our talented seamstresses can hem your printed viscose fabric for you. Available in either a folded hem or an overlock hem you can choose between black or white thread. Ensure to allow extra fabric when choosing your size, and add on a couple of days for the hemming to be done.
We print at 200dpi, which is a good combination of quality and file weight. Ideally, your image should be scaled to 100% at 200dpi; this means that no resizing of your file occurs, preventing any interpolation. Our design interface will have a quality marker next to the design that you have uploaded, this will change color using a traffic light system and display a message. The message will let you know if the resolution is too low or if you have a good quality image.
When you upload your design our system will automatically scale it to fit your chosen fabric dimensions. In the ‘Product Image’ tab, the displayed dimensions under ‘Print Size’ will show the dimensions of the piece of fabric that you are ordering. For image/design dimensions you need to see the ‘Images & Text Tools’ tab. You can see and edit the dimensions of the image under the quality information next to the thumbnail.
We advise providing images in the RGB color space. Specifically using the sRGB image profile, to achieve best color results. What does this mean? In your editing software, choose RGB as the working space and assign the image profile as sRGB (full name sRGB IEC61966-2.1)
For most of our fabrics, there is no limit on the length of the fabric that you can order. We have a preview design window set up to 10 yds max to visualize the print, but that's not a print limit. If you'd like to order more, increase the quantity (x2 for 20 yds or x4 for 40 yds for e.g.) and then you can order as much as you'd like, with a built in automatic volume discount too. The maximum print width of each fabric can be found on the individual fabric pages or in our design interface.
Yes, that might help you! Always incorporate any extra space or borders into your purchased fabric size. We trim squarely around fabric samples and fabric prints, leaving approximately 0.2" white space. Cutting neatly on the line has an additional fee.
Crocking, which is fading along the creases, often after washing or heavy use, occurs when you digitally print on natural fabrics - more so when dark or dense colors are used. It can be minimized by using a cool hand wash instead of machine washing as the tumbling of the machine is the main cause of this. To avoid entirely, we would advise using a poly fabric.
Our organic fabrics do not have any coatings that the non-organic fabrics have. This means the ink absorbs into the fibers, reducing the color strength slightly (by approx. -40%). For super-strong colors, we recommend a non-organic natural fabric.
Unfortunately not; we like to test meticulously so that we know what gets the best results on our fabrics, and our facilities cater perfectly to them. We do however print sublimation transfer paper to order, and if you have access to a heat press you can press your own fabrics easily.
For multi-colored or very detailed files we recommend using a tiff format, but they must be flattened. For simple colors and low detail files, a jpeg is fine.
Just like many fabric printing processes, there is the potential for shrinkage. Depending on the fabric, please expect and allow between 2-8% shrinkage which you need to plan for in your dimensions. This percentage can vary from print run to print run and between fabrics, so we would advise to order a little more material than you require for your project.
We do not offer to print on both sides of the fabric, as a lot of our fabrics are semi-transparent or have some show through. This wouldn't work with double-sided printing. This is not a service that we offer on any of our fabrics.
At the moment no, our labels are all printed on the same satin fabric. We may introduce more in the future, but for now, this is the best choice. The labels are all cut the same way. You can order the fabric of your choice and make the labels yourself, but we do not cut different fabrics into label format.
With environmental consciousness in mind, our fabrics are all printed using completely water-based inks. This means no chemicals or solvents are used. Our heat fixing procedure fixes the colors and prints, avoiding the downsides of steaming, such as excess or contaminated water returning into the waste system. We have one facility where we conduct all the printing, production and fulfillment. Rather than roll the fabrics, or send them in a tube, we fold them before they are sent out to you. This saves over 150 tubes a week, as well as a lot of space on the delivery van. (For delicate fabrics we ensure to package appropriately).
We work at improving our color profiles all the time. Though rare, it may happen that from one print run to another, and there could be slight color differences, this is normal and part of the process when we are constantly improving. It is extremely unlikely that there will be a huge difference (like orange instead of red for example). Please bear in mind such color variations can be intensified from fabric to fabric due to the varying grains and textures of the fabric. This is due to the construction of the materials as well as the print methods that have to be altered slightly for more delicate, natural textiles.
We have a full Cut & Sew service here at Bags of Love, and are able to hem your fabric prints for a small additional charge. We create a small one- or two-fold hem that typically uses 0.2" to 0.75" (5-20mm) of material, depending on the thickness of the fabric. So, for example, if you want a finished piece of fabric that measures 39.37" x 39.37", you will need to order a size of 39.96" x 39.96" to allow for the hem (on top of that please also allow for shrinkage of min 2%). The thicker the fabric, the bigger the hem will be. You can choose to have your prints hemmed with either Black or White thread. On our silk and other light woven fabrics, one hemmed edge will be straight (vertically down the roll) and the other will be slightly rippled. The hemming material allowances are as follows and you need to make your print bigger to accommodate the hem:
All of our fabrics are cut manually by hand, with the utmost care and attention. If your fabric has a slightly uneven look on the edges or a touch of fraying, this does not indicate a flaw in the textile. It is not always possible to achieve a perfectly straight cut with certain fabrics, so please do bear this in mind when it comes to your design. If you have any queries or would like to know about our cutting methods in more detail, please get in touch and we will be more than happy to discuss them with you.
For further information about our fabrics see our FAQs.
Please note: As everything we provide is handmade to order, you may find a slight variance in the sizes.