How To Prevent Graphic T-Shirt Designs From Cracking?

Sometimes graphic printed t-shirt design can be easily cracked after a few times wear and wash, but there are some ways to prevent it. Let's find out!

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Graphic t-shirts have a wide variety of designs. Some t-shirt designs have funky texts, while some others emphasize logos that are different from the designs of other clothing products. We can even find t-shirt designs that combine funky texts, trendy logos, and suitable color hues. Moreover, the graphic t-shirt designs are more flexible when compared to the designs of other similar products.

These t-shirts usually are from inexpensive fabrics, such as cotton or polyester blends. Hence, t-shirts have become some of the most widely-known fashion items. These entire plus points of the t-shirt make some of us have at least a few graphic tees with different designs in our wardrobe. If we happen to be a designer or an illustration, designing those t-shirts is a fun activity that we can do every day.

There are two types of inks for the designs of these t-shirts. Even so, most designers or illustrators prefer plastisol ink because it's easier to use than water-based ink.

However, there are problems to encounter when having some graphic t-shirts. One of the problems is that graphic t-shirt designs can experience some levels of cracking. The cracking graphic t-shirt designs are not something that you'd want to experience. After all, such cracking problems can reduce your clothes' overall qualities of designs. 

Before going to the ways to prevent from cracking, let us have some recaps on why can your t-shirt designs crack as follows:

Why Can My T-Shirt's Designs Crack?

There are at least three reasons why do you experience a cracking (or some) on your t-shirt designs.

The first reason the designs of your t-shirts can crack is that you wash them inappropriately. Most of the time, your t-shirt designs experience cracking when you wash them in a washing machine.

You'll usually need to run around one or two washing cycles when you put your graphic t-shirts inside a washing machine. Even if you've had the correct amounts, your tees' designs will still experience cracking if you squeeze the t-shirts too tightly.

Squeezing doesn't only happen when you've finished washing your t-shirts. At some points, you can scratch or rub the t-shirts with soaps, detergents, or other cleaning agents. These entire things can make your t-shirt designs subject to cracks, too.

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Another thing that you should pay attention to is the company's instruction. Some t-shirts have unique designs in that they require special care. 

For example, you can't machine-wash or tumble-dry some t-shirts. Failing to do so can damage your t-shirt designs, including but not limited to your graphic t-shirt designs.

The second reason why your t-shirt designs experience cracking is also related to the ways you wash your clothes. In particular, you will find the second reason easier to relate if you have several colored fashion items with different designs in your washing to-do lists.

That reason for cracking is perhaps that you don't separate your graphic t-shirts with other clothing items, particularly when the other clothing items have solid black colors as the predominant element of the t-shirt designs.

The third cracking reason is one of the inevitable things that can happen to your graphic t-shirt designs. That reason is related to the ages of your t-shirts.

Your t-shirts will eventually lose their colors, logos, texts, and more. Even though you've washed them appropriately, your t-shirt designs will experience some levels of cracking at some points of their "lifetime." After all, everything in this world is subject to aging, and your graphic t-shirts are no exception.

Fortunately, there are ways that you can try to prevent graphic t-shirt designs from cracking. So, follow the tips in this article, and the designs of your t-shirts will become more durable.

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Don't Wear The Same Shirt Every Day

This point is not only all about the designs, styles, or following the latest fashion trends. Instead, this number-one point focuses on the durability (or the "lifetime") of your t-shirts.

The more you wear a specific type of t-shirt, the more likely every design in those t-shirts will fade away. As a result, the entire design will experience cracking if you wear the same t-shirts almost every day.

No matter how fond you are of the graphic t-shirt, you should have at least one clothing item for a day. Change the ways you dress up, and the graphic designs of your tees won't experience any forms of cracking.

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Satisfy Your Graphic Tees' Needs For A Colder Environment

You can fulfill the needs of your graphic tees' designs by not exposing them to direct sunlight and always wash your t-shirts with some buckets of cold water.

There are no decent things that will happen from the exposures to direct sunlight. UV lights will distort the inks that the illustrators or the designers use to paint your graphic tees' designs. Eventually, the inks will bloat all over the graphic tees' canvases. 

Problems such as cracking matters can also happen because of the UV light exposures. Even worse, the inks can damage your other graphic clothing items.

You can avoid these cracking problems by drying your clothes inside any areas in your houses instead of doing these in outdoor areas. 

Additionally, ensure that the buckets of water you're going to use are cold. It is because the hot water's ability to wash stains on clothes becomes a boomerang in terms of graphic t-shirt designs.

The hot water itself is not a friendly type of water for fabrics that are usually for graphic t-shirts. Consequently, you can experience cracking when you wash your graphic tees' designs with a bucket of hot water.

As an alternative, you can choose either the lukewarm or the warm water. At least, those types of water are more capable of freeing from cracking symptoms for graphic tees compared to hot water.

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Use The Accurate Washing Methods In Your Washing Machine

The accurate washing methods for your graphic t-shirts include the ways you set up your washing machine and use the dryers.

Ensure you turn your graphic tees' designs inside out before you plunge them into the washing machine's tubes. After all, graphic t-shirt designs won't have frictions or experience some degrees of cracking if you turn the graphic t-shirt inside out.

When you turn your graphic tees' designs inside out, make sure that the t-shirt designs are in backward modes. In other words, the logos, texts, and other graphic types of your t-shirt designs shouldn't be too transparent-looking.

For example, be careful of any graphic t-shirts that have some emboss designs as the primary elements. In particular, the larger the spaces that the emboss designs take, the more likely your graphic t-shirt designs require special laundering care.

By turning your graphic tees' designs inside out, you will protect the designs from cracking. Even though you're washing your graphic tees with other t-shirts, the colors and other elements of the designs won't fade away. Best of all, you will have easier times washing away the dirt and sweating particles inside your graphic tees' designs.

When drying your graphic tees' designs, ensure that your washing machines don't have an agitator whenever you can. Top-load washers often have this tool, and such characteristics make them rough on many types of t-shirts.

So, don't choose those washing machines and dryers to avoid cracking on your graphic t-shirt designs. If you can't eliminate such things, you should select the gentlest setting on your washing machine.

You can start selecting the gentlest setting by testing the tumble-dry modes, speed, and times. Some washing machines have something like "delicate," "easy-care," or similar buttons that you can set up. Some others connect to Wi-Fi and other electronic devices.

When you dry your graphic t-shirt, you should immediately stop when the tumble-dry function makes the drying tubes shake heavily. Then, adjust the tumble-dry modes, speed, and times so they will come up slower. In such ways, they won't produce any kinds of cracking on your graphic t-shirt designs.

If your washing machines have the "delicate," "easy-care," or similar buttons, make sure you understand the uses of those buttons. Don't connect too many devices when you wash your graphic tees' designs. Else, your graphic t-shirt designs will have more intense degrees of cracking.

Alternatively, skip the dryer altogether. Instead, hang your graphic tees on some clotheslines inside your house. You can also use some drying racks to prevent your graphic tees from cracking.

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Use Natural Ways To Wash Your Graphic T-Shirts

In using natural ways to prevent your graphic t-shirt designs from cracking, you can opt to hand-wash your graphic tees' designs instead of bringing your graphic t-shirts inside the washing machine.

Specifically, this way works if your graphic tees' emboss designs are heavily marked. There are times when flipping your graphic tees inside out doesn't entirely make the emboss designs more invisible.

These are the times when all you can do is hand-wash your graphic tees' designs. In washing your graphic tees with your bare hands, you should still use a bucket of cold water. Additionally, allocate around 30 minutes of your time if you decide to wash your graphic tees manually.

Adding a half scoop of detergent inside a bucket of cold water is a frequent solution that works for graphic t-shirts to prevent them from cracking. 

Make sure that the detergent doesn't fall into the heavy category. Else, not only will you fail in preventing your graphic t-shirts from cracking. Your graphic tees will also lose their colors and other attractive graphic types on them.

After you plunge the detergent inside the bucket, mix them until the mixtures become bubbly. Then, place your graphic tees inside the bucket. 

Let your graphic t-shirts soak there for around 15 minutes before you massage the graphic tees.

When you finally massage the graphic tees, make sure that you prioritize the blank canvas with a solid color first. Continue with the embossed designs after you've done the one-color parts. This time, do it gentler because these are the designs that are most subject to cracking.

Repeat the steps for another part of your graphic tees. The next thing you have to do for your graphic t-shirts is to rinse the detergent solutions right away after you've finished both parts of your t-shirts. 

Remember not to over-squeeze your graphic t-shirts since doing so will only make your graphic tees more vulnerable to cracking. Such things will happen because over-squeezing impacts the inks and fabrics, which are the two things that contribute to the graphic tees' cracking.

Instead of doing things that will result in more degrees of cracking, try to air-dry your graphic tees. Using some clotheslines and drying racks helps in preventing your graphic t-shirts from cracking. For the best result, separate darker-colored graphic tees from the lighter-colored ones when using clotheslines and drying racks.

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Invest In The Appropriate Laundry Materials For Your Shirts

The correct detergents and other laundry equipment are the essential things that you should prepare if you want to prevent your graphic t-shirts from cracking. Not all detergents work for graphic tees. If you want to purchase some detergents for your graphic tees, make sure that the detergents have a gentle formula.

Your graphic tees' detergents don't need to have any fragrant perfume scents. Environmentally friendly detergents are the types of detergents that are free of harmful chemicals, such as paraben and Sodium Laureth Sulfate, that can worsen the cracking on your graphic tees' surfaces. These detergents are the ones that you should buy for your graphic tees. After all, these types of detergents support you in preventing the designs from cracking.

If you can't buy such detergents, you can use mild soap to substitute the detergents. Avoid chemicals with high acidity levels when you create a mild soap-based solution. That way, your graphic t-shirts will be free from cracking.

You can create a natural mild soap solution for your t-shirts by mixing the soap in a bucket of cold water. It doesn't matter if you decide to use bar soap or liquid soap for your graphic tees.

Bar soaps have more natural bubbles after you mix them with a bucket of cold water. Yet, don't forget to store them in a safe place, so insects can't get on them. Even though liquid soaps tend to be less natural than bar soaps, these types of soaps mix well with a bucket of cold water.

It doesn't matter if you choose detergents or mild soap solutions for your graphic tees: You mustn't add them too much. Doing so will embed the mixtures on the graphic t-shirts' fabrics. As a result, your graphic tees will experience more degrees of cracking. Other laundry tools are essential for supporting the ways you wash your graphic t-shirts. For example, you can invest in laundry bags.

The laundry bags' functions don't stop in separating your graphic tees from other t-shirts. Instead, these economically-priced bags' purposes are to protect your graphic t-shirts from cracking.

The laundry bags protect your graphic tees from cracking by minimizing the friction between your graphic t-shirts with other t-shirts and clothing items. Then, the minimized friction intensities contribute to the lesser likelihood for the inks to produce cracking. Such benefits are powerful while you wash the graphic t-shirts.

Mesh laundry bags are the most magnificent laundry bags to protect your graphic tees from cracking. It is because mesh laundry bags have delicate net-shaped surfaces that can prevent your t-shirts from cracking.

You can find laundry bags in both online and offline stores. These supporting laundry tools are usually pretty much inexpensive. All you need to do is to spend less than US$50 per one laundry bag. Then, you can free your t-shirts from cracking.

As an alternative to laundry bags, you can place your entire graphic t-shirts inside a clean pillowcase. Remember to tie the pillowcases with a rubber band or similar items. So, you will be able to prevent your graphic t-shirts from cracking.

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Final Words

Preventing the t-shirt's pictures from cracking is an action that you can take to lengthen the lifespans of your t-shirts. However, you will do your best to eliminate the cracking parts of your graphic tees if you pay attention to the how-tos that we provide in this article.

Using the appropriate solutions for laundering your t-shirts is not enough on its own. No matter if you're going to hand-wash your t-shirts or plunge your t-shirts into a washing machine, you should take care of the emboss designs first. Ironing and drying up the graphic tees are the most integral steps for preventing your designs from cracking. Bear in mind that you can't directly iron some of the elements on your t-shirt.

Another thing that you should keep in mind about keeping your graphic t-shirts away from the cracking problem is to clean up your t-shirts from both sides. In those ways, your t-shirts will be free of cracking.

So, those are the how-tos to support your efforts in preventing your tee designs from cracking. Finally, we wish you good luck in preserving the qualities of your shirts.