Reverse Print Hawaiian Shirts: Turn Your World Inside Out

Today’s topic is about reverse print Hawaiian shirts and some of the myths and misconceptions that surround them.  If you ask someone what reverse print means to them you will get a variety of responses, with many responses hinging on what trade or task that they are actually familiar with.

People familiar with the technique of printing images or text on the underside of a transparent film or part of a lamination process may say that’s their definition of “reverse print” and to others the modification of your printer properties to achieve a “reverse print” A.K.A mirror image of your fonts, is the proper definition. Both definitions are correct, as well as many others.

But for the sake of discussion I am going to stick with a topic I am an expert on, and that’s Hawaiian apparel, in particular Hawaiian shirts. We sell all sorts of Hawaiian apparel at Wave Shoppe including some reverse print Hawaiian shirts, but you would be amazed by how many people that wear them yet have no idea how they are made.  One common myth is that the shirts are flopped inside out and another myth is that the fabric is somehow printed so that the pattern is muted and dull.

Truth be told the concept is extremely simple. But first let’s do a quick review of how fabric is printed so this will make complete sense to our readers. When a fabric is printed the rolls of white cotton are screen printed by a machine, usually in a continuous run. The coloring or dye lot is pressed into the exposed layer of the raw fabric, and then dried, producing the vivid and often colorful patterns that you see in the shirts.

When the dye is applied it’s absorbed by the fabric and how saturated the fabric get depends on the fabrics gauge and or thickness and thread count, as well as the pressure used during application.

On a good print job the dye will almost ooze from the underside (non-printed side of the fabric) producing a dull toned down, yet mirror image of the design being applied, as illustrated below.

So at this point we have covered the basic aspects of printing fabric. The soft rule for when you are selecting candidate fabrics for reverse print Hawaiian shirts is that you focus on the undersides of the fabrics (as shown above) and try imagine what they would look like as a shirt.

With a little experience under your belt you will come to know that not all fabrics are good candidates, some have too many dominant colors that have bleed through and some don’t have enough. What you don’t want is a shirt that is so poorly dyed that all you see is the thread weave or worse, a visibly low thread count. You objectives are to make a muted looking Hawaiian shirt that looks a bit more stylish than a ghetto looking shirt that was simply flipped inside out.

Once you have made your selection you’re off to the races. All that’s left is to lay out the layers of fabric with the original printed side down and then start cutting the components of the shirt. Sewing will put it all together and presto, you will have a reverse print Hawaiian shirt! The shirt we used for illustration purpose’s is for sale and is appropriately referred to as our Blue Green Reverse Print Hawaiian Shirt which is a big hit with our reverse print customers.