Learn how to create sublimation kitchen towels with this easy to to follow tutorial.
With just a few supplies like a waffle weave microfiber towel, a sublimation printer, heat press, and a free sublimation design, you can easily create sublimated towels that adds a unique touch to your kitchen.
This sublimation tutorial is perfect for beginners because both the video and written step by step instructions are clear and simple to follow. We’ll discuss what materials you need, printer settings, heat press settings, and helpful tips on how to sublimate with confidence without wasting sublimation blanks.
Video Tutorial
Learn how to make sublimation kitchen towels with our funny sublimation designs by watching and following along this YouTube video.
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Materials, Equipment, and Accessories
The following is the complete list of items you need to make this sublimation kitchen towel.
Sublimation Design
Alexa, clean the house and Alexa, do the dishes.
Wishful thinking! Add these funny designs to your sublimation kitchen towels.
These free sublimation designs for kitchen towels are for personal use only. It is not meant to be sold or shared with any of the free design groups.
If you want to share it with a friend, give them the link to this Sublimation Tutorial so they can also get it for themselves.
Please review the Terms of Use before downloading this free sublimation design. By downloading, you are hereby legally bound by our terms.
Funny Kitchen Towels – “Clean the House” and “Do the Dishes“
- Free Sublimation Design – D0040a1
- 2023 ©SublimakersAcademy retains the full copyright
- Designs are for personal use only
You need a free Canva account in order to download the free sublimation designs. If you don’t already have one, get a free trial so you can get them.
What Makes Canva Pro Great?
- Beginner-friendly design program for sublimation.
- Download 300dpi images for sublimation.
- Capable of social media content creation, video editing with audio, and social media scheduling.
- Includes 40,000+ templates.
- Low cost monthly charge with no contracts.
DON’T MISS OUR OTHER FREE SUBLIMATION DESIGNS
Check out our other sections full of sublimation designs you can use for many other sublimation blanks:
- Clothing — Shirts, Sweatshirts, Baby Bodysuits
- Christmas Ornaments
- Home Decor — Pillows, Garden Flags, Kitchen Towels, Wall Signs
- Accessories — Earrings, Keychains, Tote Bags
- Drinkware — Tumblers and Mugs
We also have Free Fonts you can use to personalize these free sublimation files!
Sublimation Kitchen Towels
The most important item you need are the sublimation kitchen towel blanks. Since sublimation works well on polyester materials, we are using a microfiber kitchen towel with a waffle weave design.
Microfibers are generally polyester so they are great for sublimation. And remember, white is the best color for sublimation because it
Sublimation Kitchen Towels
- Microfiber material for sublimation
- Super absorbent so they are great for the kitchn
- Waffle weave design
- Machine washable
- Lint free and soft
- 16×24 inches
Sublimation Printer
We’re using a converted Epson EcoTank ET-2400 for this kitchen towel project. It’s one of the lowest cost Epson printers that you can convert for sublimation.
Read our Converted ET-2400 Printer Review on how to easily convert this inkjet printer.
In general, you only need a sublimation printer that is capable of printing on 8.5 x 14 inches unless you want a full-bleed sublimation kitchen towel. Other small format printers that will work include:
- Epson SureColor F170 — this printer does not need to be converted. It is easy to set up and ready for sublimation printing right out of the box. We have this printer and you can see the full review here.
- Epson EcoTank ET-2800 or ET-2803 — these are essentially the same printer and the difference is where it is purchased. These are regular inkjet printers that need to be converted to sublimation. Since this is an EcoTank model, converting it is easy by just adding the sublimation ink instead of the inkjet ink it came with. Our full review of the Converted ET-2803 Sublimation Printer shows you how easy it is to convert. Any printers converted into sublimation automatically voids its warranty from Epson.
We used a Mac computer for this kitchen towel sublimation tutorial. The printer settings we used gave us great printed sublimation transfers.
Epson Ecotank ET-2400 Converted Printer
- Low cost Epson printer that can be converted for sublimation
- Prints on 8.5 x 14″ paper
- Easy to convert for sublimation
- Easy fill tanks so you can easily add your sublimation ink without having to use a syringe
- No chip errors since this does not require cartridges
Sublimation Ink
In the converted ET-2400, we have the Printers Jack Ink installed. It does not need an ICC profile and it gives us great printed sublimation transfers.
It is affordable and available from Amazon. If you have the Amazon Prime account, you can typically get it in a day or two. Try out Amazon Prime for free trial if you don’t already have it.
Printers jack Sublimation INk
- Easily pours into the Ecotank’s ink reservoir
- 100 ml for each CMYK ink bottle
- Can be used without an ICC profile
Sublimation Paper
Our favorite paper that has given us consistent results is the Texprint DT Heavy. It is available in many sizes. For this sublimation project, we are using the 8.5×14 inches.
TexPrint DT Heavy came out on top when we tested several sublimation papers. You can see the print results in the Sublimation Paper Comparison Test.
Texprint DT Heavy Sublimation Paper
- Sublimation paper that can be used for a variety of printers and comes in many sizes.
- This is what we used for the print testing, see images of pressed blanks below.
As usual, you also have the option to use any paper and these are the other brands we tested.
A-Sub Sublimation Paper
Koala Sublimation Paper
Printer’s jack Paper
Lint Roller
When you are sublimating on any type of clothing or fabric material, you need to remove the lint using a lint roller.
When you heat press lint, it comes out blue. So if you don’t remove all the lint before pressing, you will end up with blue threadlike marks all over your white kitchen towels.
This is important because those blue threadlike marks are permanent! So use a lint roller and make sure you go over it 2-3x.
LInt Roller
- Extra sticky
- Use it a few times to completely remove all the lint from your fabric materials before pressing
Heat Press
We use the GeoKnight DK20S heat press. It’s a workhorse so it’s worth every penny. We’ve had it for several years and have not let us down through thousands of sublimation projects.
George Knight Heat Press DK20S
- Swing Away Style
- Made in the USA
- Lifetime warranty on heat platen
- Excellent customer service
Both swing away and clamshell heat press work well for these sublimation kitchen towels. Even a smaller 9×12-inch heat press will work too!
Adhesive
You can use a spray adhesive to keep your design on the kitchen towel while pressing. We do not recommend using the yellow heat tape for this project because they can leave a permanent yellow stain on your white kitchen towels.
The repositionable adhesive sprays do not leave any sticky residue. They also keep your printed sublimation design adhered to your kitchen towel so they don’t move during the pressing process.
When a sublimation design moves while pressing, you can end up with a “ghosted” image. That mistake is permanent and you will end up with a wasted sublimation blank.
Prospray Adhesive
- Repositionable
- Lasts for hundreds of uses
- Prevents your print from shifting
For our video tutorial, we did not use the adhesive spray simply because we’ve made thousands of kitchen towels and know how to open the heat press so that it doesn’t shift to cause problems.
For beginners, we highly recommend the adhesive spray.
Butcher Paper
Use a plain white butcher paper under your sublimation kitchen towel and another over the sublimation design. These prevent your sublimation design from being permanently pressed on the heat platen of your heat press.
Butcher papers keep your design from being transferred to your heat platen during the heating process. Teflon is not recommended as it holds moisture.
Butcher Paper
- Protects your heat platen from getting sublimated with the image
- Does not hold moisture like teflon
Butcher Paper Dispenser
- Large dispenser for butcher papers
- Holds up to 18″ rolls
- Arm that holds down the edge of your butcher paper for easy tearing.
Tweezers
After pressing, we use a large tweezer to quickly pull off the sublimation transfer from the kitchen towel.
If you end up moving the sublimation transfer when taking it off the towel, you can end up with a ghosted image because the print is still hot and can still transfer some sublimation ink to your white towel.
So it’s important that you pull the design up quickly without moving it on the towel.
Tweezers
- Helps you quickly pull off your sublimation design from your sublimation clothing or fabric
- Prevents ghosting when you lift off your design in one quick pull
Step By Step Kitchen Towel Sublimation Tutorial
Here are the exact steps we used to make these funny kitchen towels using sublimation:
- Get the free, funny kitchen towel sublimation design that we created using Canva.
- Remember, the free kitchen towel design is for your personal use only and you are legally bound by our Terms of Use the minute you download it.
- Open your downloaded design file and send it to your printer.
- Heat up your press to 375°F. Please note that temperature settings can vary depending on your heat press brand, kitchen towel blank, and amount of moisture in the air in your craft room.
- Use butcher paper under and over your sublimation kitchen towels and printed sublimation design.
- Remove all the lint from your kitchen towel using a lint roller. Do this a few times to make sure all the lint is gone.
- Prepress your kitchen towel for 7 seconds.
- Tear around your printed sublimation design so that it does not leave a straight line around the pressed image after pressing.
- Lightly spray the adhesive on your printed sublimation design.
- Carefully line up the sublimation design on your kitchen towel.
- Press for 45 seconds at a very light pressure.
- When done, carefully and swiftly lift off the sublimation design using the large tweezers.
- Lint roll over the design to fluff up the kitchen towel fibers while the towel is still hot.
Watch the full video tutorial so you can follow along and sublimate a kitchen towel too.
Frequently Asked Questions About Kitchen Towel Sublimation
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