What is garment dyeing?
Garment dyeing sews the garment first, in undyed fabric, and dyes the finished piece afterwards in a batch. It produces the soft, washed, slightly faded-at-the-seams finish of premium heavyweight streetwear. Piece dyeing — dyeing the fabric roll before cutting — is the alternative, and it is how our garments are coloured: a colour of your own with us is a 300-piece dye lot at the mill, lab-dip approved.
Why it matters
It is the finish behind most washed-look streetwear, and it is often assumed to be a way round colour minimums. It is a specialist process with its own minimums, shrinkage allowances and batch variation — which is part of the look.
On our floor
We do not garment-dye. Custom colours are piece-dyed to order in 300-piece lots, matched to Pantone TCX with a lab dip; below 300 we match from stock colours. Heavyweight cotton in a stock colour with a discharge or water-based print gets most of the way to the washed feel.
Common questions
- Does garment dyeing shrink the garment?
- Yes — the fabric shrinks in the dye, so garment-dyed pieces are cut oversize to an allowance. Piece-dyed fabric, ours, is compacted before cutting instead.
- What is the minimum for a custom colour with you?
- A 300-piece dye lot of that colour. Stock colours can be split within a 50-piece order at 30 per colour.
- Can garment-dyed pieces be printed?
- Yes — decoration is applied after dyeing. Discharge and water-based prints suit the finish, on garment-dyed and stock-colour cotton alike.
- Why do garment-dyed seams look lighter?
- Thread and rib take dye differently and the wash softens edges. It is the finish brands choose it for.
Related terms
lab dip
A lab dip is a small piece of the actual fabric dyed to your Pantone reference before any bulk dyeing, sent for approval. It is how a…
Pantone TCX
Pantone TCX is the Pantone system for textiles: colours defined on dyed cotton swatches rather than printed paper, so they represent what a…
pre-shrunk
Pre-shrunk — or compacted — fabric has been mechanically shrunk before the garment is cut, so the finished piece shrinks far less in the…
discharge printing
Discharge printing uses an ink that bleaches the garment's own dye out of the fabric where the design sits, then replaces it with pigment.…
Where this applies
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