Printed ties and printed scarves or as some people refer to them as printed scarf both come from the same family, the brother and sister or mom and pop of the same family. Its also important to note that printed ties and printed scarf or printed scarves are custom ties or custom scarves or custom scarf.

Both of these items being printed ties and printed scarves or printed scarf are sublimated, especially in South Africa although in other parts of the world, they are printed in various different ways because frankly, in different parts of the world, especially China and Eastern countries they are further ahead of the curve than we are and their equipment can be justified just by the sheer numbers of custom ties or printed ties aswell as custom scarves or printed scarves or scarf in those particular nations and sold to the rest of the world.

It is important also to note that these particular countries are also very proficient in woven ties and are able to turn out a really awesome product in a short space of time.

In fact, looking at countries like China, the vast majority of custom ties made are woven as opposed to printed ties which in South Africa is the opposite apart from striped school ties which are mainly woven, not really printed.

The challenge with custom scarves or printed scarves or printed scarf is that they can only really be printed as to use woven fabric would not be practical as the custom scarves would be too heavy and the back side of the weave has no design, it is purely the colour of the warp which in South Africa is black if locally woven.

Printed ties do have some advantages over woven ties from the point of view that it is much quicker as a process, because the process is easier than that of woven ties. also, printed ties  are cheaper than woven ties to manufacture, they are washable to a point and have more flexibility when it comes to design.

Also, the process of sampling is cheaper and quicker but don’t get me wrong this doesn’t take away the beauty of woven ties and if the client is happy to go through the process and pay more for the woven ties then generally, they get a great product.

So printed ties are printed on plain white 100% polyester fabric, it is important to note that sublimation can not take place on any other fabric, it has to be 100% polyester.

Generally, satin fabric is used for printed ties and very often chiffon fabric is used for printed scarf or printed scarves. When I say satin, it is pretty similar to the satin used for wedding dresses or perhaps the lining but one cannot use a shiny satin for printed ties as then the print comes out too shiny which is not really desirable and doesn’t look great.

When it comes to chiffon used for ladies printed scarf or ladies printed scarves, it is normally a lighter weight of chiffon that is used so that the printed scarves are not to heavy or hot during summer time.