Custom Neck and Bow Ties Sublimation Gifts

A custom tie makes a great gift! Sublimation is an easy process that produces consistently excellent results and allows you to show your creativity. A personalized gift always means more and sublimation is a process where you can make custom gifts on a variety of materials such as shirts, mugs, tumblers and other polyester fabrics.

I have chosen album covers and dogs for themes for these ties as I think most people have emotional connections with these. The options are infinite but other themes I have used are tv & movies (Jaws, Star Trek), food (sushi, breakfast), school logos and also sports (squash). You also can find many free and creative patterns. One of my favorite sites is www.wowpatterns.com. Another way to find a cool designs is to Google "seamless patterns".

These ties are quite economical with the cost per tie being about $4 (after the purchase of the printer and the heat press).

Sublimation Printer (Sawgrass SG500) with sublimation paper, Heat press, White polyester tie (amazon or alibaba), glue stick

Find a good quality photo. For this Instructable, I use both an album cover of one of my favorite bands and a photo of my dog. Remove background (optional). Hint: I use the new Apple iOS feature to remove photo backgrounds or the website www.pixlr.com. I also used www.befunky.com on the dog photo to make is a bit more artsy. It seems to boost the contrast and make the image stand out.

I use Inkscape for all of my graphic design. It has robust features and most importantly is free and open source. Set the document properties / size to "letter" and "portrait".

I import the photo and resize to 1.5" x 1.5". I think this size is a good compromise between abstract pattern and recognizable photo.

In Inkscape I also add a border square (1.65" x 1.65") to the square image by using one of the colors from the image (using the eyedropper tool).

Export the PNG file using "selection" and 600 dpi which will give good resolution.

Import the png tile back into Inkscape and place in the top left corner of the page. I changed the tile size to .8" x .8". I then choose Edit/Clone/Create Tiled Clones.

I choose 20 rows and 15 columns for the album cover (more for the dog) to fill the page and also add a row and column shift of 15% in order to create less overlap. The reduced overlap will give more space for a background color to show through.

Adding a background color gives more options and a "pop" of color. Just place a large rectangle on a lower layer. I also rotate the tiled pattern a bit (30º?) in order to get rid of horizontal and vertical alignment.

The pdf export will capture what ever is framed on the page. I export with 600 dpi in order to ensure good resolution.

For long ties I print 3 pages of the pdf and for bow ties I print 2 pages of the pdf.

Turn on the heat press to warm up to 400º. Fold the papers in half and align each page carefully to match up seams for the long ties using heat resistant tape. Place the blank tie against inside and use a glue stick around the tie to "encase" the tie. Make sure that the glue stick does not touch the blank tie as it will effect the print quality. Fold the paper over to close and seal the tie inside. The sealing of the tie ensures that there will be no movement of the tie during the sublimation process.

Place on the heat press and press for one minute on each side.