• Back ·
  • Silk Impression Printing
Alternative Silk Fabric

Reviews for Silk Impression Printing

Alternative Silk Fabric

Silk Impression Printing

from $44.50

Our Silk Impression fabric features the same light, delicate and luxurious appearance of real silk, but it...

Read More

  • salespoint-img

    Ships in 3 - 4 days

  • salespoint-img

    Delivery $15.95

  • salespoint-img

    Handmade



Quantity Discount

  • ≥ 3 m2: $65/sq m
  • ≥ 10 m2: $61/sq m 6.3% Discount
  • ≥ 20 m2: $60/sq m 7.8% Discount
  • ≥ 30 m2: $58/sq m 10.9% Discount
  • ≥ 40 m2: $55/sq m 15.5% Discount
  • ≥ 50 m2: $47/sq m 27.8% Discount
  • ≥ 1 m2: $89/sq m
  • ≥ 0.5 m2: $89/sq m

Silk Impression Printing Features

  • Semi-translucent with a shiny, shimmery face
  • Your unique designs printed using dye sublimation
  • Cost effective alternative to real silk
  • Perfect for dressmaking, quilting, furnishings
  • Printed to order, ready in 1-2 days
  • Fast delivery to New Zealand

Choose our alternative silk fabric for your next fashion, craft or DIY project at home.

It has the same appealing properties you'd find with natural silk, but with a more cost-effective price tag and easier maintenance needs. The tight plain weave construct prints both intricate details and solid block colours equally well, so whatever your unique design is, it looks amazing on silk impression. 
  • Custom size silk impression printing
  • Perfect alternative to real silk fabric
  • Smooth, delicate & cool to touch
  • Semi-transparent with shimmery face
  • Catches the light nicely
  • Effortless drape
  • Easier to care for than real silk
  • Use for fashion, furnishings, linings
  • Can be worn in warm and cold weather
  • Lightweight but plain weave makes it strong
  • Machine washable and iron safe
  • 41gsm
  • Max print 1.4m x 5m / 5m x 1.4m
  • 4 edge finishing options*
  • Expertly printed to order
  • Ready in 1-2 days

How to Care for Your Silk Impression Material

Despite being thin and delicate, it's a surprisingly tough fabric that doesn't have fussy maintenance needs. Machine wash at 30°c, hang to dry or tumble dry on medium. It's also safe to iron on a low heat, ideal if you're making shirts and other fashion items.


What Exciting Things Can I Make Using Silk Impression Fabric?

It's a very desirable fabric to work with, so it's ideal for a number of creative projects. Got an old bag that needs a makeover, or bought a bag that has a bland, dark interior? Try silk impression printing and sew a new, fun lining into your handbag. You can also make cute clothing embellishments like pocket squares and peter pan collars. It's a firm favourite with fashion designers, given the natural elegant drape, so pick a flattering shirt pattern and make a cool piece of clothing that none of your friends will have.


Try our alternative impression silk fabric, and marvel in the wonderful quality and smooth texture. 

Silk Impression Printing

To guarantee a bold, everlasting print for your custom designed silk impression, we use dye sublimation. This process bonds the ink deep into the textile so it won't rub away or come off in the wash. This poly-blend material is woven in a tight plain weave, so fine details and lines come through crisp and clear. Perfect if you've got an intricate pattern. You can choose photos, graphic designs or your own artwork to have custom printed onto your silk style fabric.

*When you design your alternative silk fabric, you'll notice there are four edge finishing options: cut on the line, hemmed with white thread, hemmed with black thread or left as it is with a rough cut.

Print Guideline

  • DPI-Print Guideline Icon

    What's the best resolution to print in?

    We print at 200dpi, which is a good combination of quality and file weight. Ideally, your image should be scaled to 100% at 200dpi; this means that no resizing of your file occurs, preventing any interpolation. Our design interface will have a quality marker next to the design that you have uploaded, this will change colour using a traffic light system and display a message. The message will let you know if the resolution is too low or if you have a good quality image. 

  • scaling-Print Guideline Icon

    How will my image scale?

    When you upload your design our system will automatically scale it to fit your chosen fabric dimensions. In the ‘Product Options’ tab, the displayed dimensions under ‘Print Size’ will show the dimensions of the piece of fabric that you are ordering. For image/design dimensions you need to see the ‘Images & Text Tools’ tab. You can see and edit the dimensions of the image under the quality information next to the thumbnail.

  • RGB-CMYK Print Guideline Icon

    Which colour model should I choose? RGB or CMYK?

    We advise providing images in the RGB colour space. Specifically using the sRGB image profile, to achieve best colour results. What does this mean? In your editing software choose RGB as the working space, and assign the image profile as sRGB (full name sRGB IEC61966-2.1)

  • Print-Roll Length Fabric Guide Icon

    Maximum dimensions

    For most of our fabrics, there is no limit on the length of the fabric that you can order. We have a preview design window set up to 10m max to visualise the print, but that's not a print limit. If you'd like to order more, increase the quantity (x2 for 20m or x4 for 40m for example) and then you can order as much as you'd like, with a built-in automatic volume discount too. The maximum print width of each fabric can be found on the individual fabric pages or in our design interface.

  • Borders-Print Guideline Icon

    Do I need to incorporate white space within my design if I want a border or some cutting space?

    Yes, that might help you! Always incorporate any extra space or boarders into your purchased fabric size. We trim squarely around fabric samples and fabric prints, leaving approximately 5mm white space. Cutting neatly on the line has an additional fee.

  • crocking-Print Guideline Icon

    What is crocking and why might it occur?

    Crocking, which is fading along the creases, often after washing or heavy use, occurs when you digitally print on natural fabrics - more so when dark or dense colours are used. It can be minimised by using a cool hand wash instead of machine washing as the tumbling of the machine is the main cause of this. To avoid entirely, we would advise using a poly fabric.

  • organics-Print Guideline Icon

    Why do my colours appear lighter on organic fabrics?

    Our organic fabrics do not have any coatings that the non-organic fabrics have. This means the ink absorbs into the fibres, reducing the colour strength slightly (by approx. -40%). For super strong colours we recommend a non-organic natural fabric.

  • Transfer-Print Guideline Icon

    Do you print on fabric a customer supplies?

    Unfortunately not; we like to test meticulously so that we know what gets best results on our fabrics, and our facilities cater perfectly to them. We do however print sublimation paper to order, and if you have access to a heat press you can press your own fabrics easily.

  • Jpeg-Tiff Print Guideline Icon

    Should I save my file as a TIFF or JPEG?

    For multi-coloured or very detailed files we recommend using a tiff format, but they must be flattened. For simple colours and low detail files, a jpeg is fine.

  • Shrinkage-Print Guideline Icon

    What is the situation with material shrinkage?

    Just like many fabric printing processes, there is the potential for shrinkage. Depending on the fabric, please expect and allow between 2-8% shrinkage which you need to plan for in your dimensions. This percentage can vary from print run to print run and between fabrics, so we would advise ordering a little more material than you require for your project. 

  • Print-Both Sides Print Guideline Icon

    Can I print on both sides of the fabric?

    We do not offer to print on both sides of the fabric. A lot of our fabrics are semi-transparent or have some show through and this wouldn't work with double-sided printing. This is not a service that we offer on any of our fabrics.

  • Labels-Print Guideline Icon

    Can I order labels in another fabric? Would you cut them as you do with the normal fabric labels?

    At the moment no, our labels are all printed on the same satin fabric. We may introduce more in the future, but for now, this is the best choice. The labels are all cut the same way. You can order the fabric of your choice and make the labels yourself, but we do not cut different fabric into label format.

  • Eco friendly Printing

    How is your fabric printing eco-friendly?

    With environmental consciousness in mind, our fabrics are all printed using completely water-based inks. This means no chemicals or solvents are used. Our heat fixing procedure fixes the colours and prints, avoiding the downsides of steaming, such as excess or contaminated water returning into the waste system. We have one facility in London where we conduct all the printing, production and fulfilment. Rather than roll the fabrics, or send them in a tube, we fold them before they are sent out to you. This saves over 150 tubes a week, as well as a lot of space on the delivery van. (For delicate fabrics we ensure to package appropriately).

  • colour palette

    Why are there slight colour differences between my orders?

    We work at improving our colour profiles all the time. Though rare it may happen that from one print run to another, and there could be slight colour differences, this is normal and part of the process when we are constantly improving. It is extremely unlikely that there will be a huge difference (like orange instead of red for example). Please bear in mind such colour variations can be intensified from fabric to fabric due to the varying grains and textures of the fabric; natural fabrics tend to have more muted colours than their poly alternatives. This is due to the construction of the materials as well as the print methods that have to be altered slightly for more delicate, natural textiles.




Sizing For Hemming And Shrinkage

Hemming Options ICON

We have a full Cut & Sew service here at Bags of Love, and are able to hem your fabric prints for a small additional charge. We create a small one- or two-fold hem that typically uses 5 to 20mm of material, depending on the thickness of the fabric. So, for example, if you want a finished piece of fabric that measures 100 x 100cm, you will need to order a size of 101.5cm x 101.5cm to allow for the hem (on top of that please also allow for shrinkage of min 2%). The thicker the fabric, the bigger the hem will be. You can choose to have your prints hemmed with either Black or White thread. On our silk and other light woven fabrics, one hemmed edge will be straight (vertically down the roll) and the other will be slightly rippled. The hemming material allowances are as follows and you need to make your print bigger to accommodate the hem:

  • Light Fabrics (20-100gsm): For silks and other light fabrics, we use 6-8mm in the hem (2 fold), so overall width/height will be minus 12-16mm
  • Medium Fabrics (101-200gsm): For medium-weight fabrics that fray, we use 15-20mm in the hem (2 fold) so overall width/height will be minus 35-40mm
  • Stiff/Heavy/No-fray fabrics: we use 15-20mm in the hem (1 fold) so overall width/height will be minus 35-40mm
All of these measurements are approximate and can vary. Including with shrinkage, it can mean a fairly significant difference to ordered dimensions, so please plan your print accordingly. Depending on how open the weave is, our fabric can shrink anywhere from 2% to 8% with the average being 2.5%.
 

How Would you Like the Edge?

We have four finishing options for your fabric order: 
  • As it comes. We cut around your image, leaving a simply scissor cut, perhaps uneven white fabric border. 
  • Hem with thread. We can hem your fabric with a choice of black or white thread. Please allow 1-2 days of additional production time. See below for information on how hemming affects the size of your print. We offer an overlock hem, as well as a folded hem (one or two fold depending on the fabric) however not all fabrics, are suited to both hem types. If you can see both options, it means both are suitable, and you will be able to choose whichever you prefer. 
  • Cut on the line. We will cut neatly on the edge of your design. This means that if you have a border around your design we will cut around that border, if your design takes the whole space of the fabric, then we will neatly cut around the edge of that image. Please be aware, when we cut along the line, we have to cut against the grain of the fabric. This is the standard procedure for fabric cutting. This means that with some fabrics, for example, Georgette and Mulmul, which have a slight wave in them, some fraying will occur. This is unavoidable, as the cut follows the grain of the textile. 
All of our fabrics are cut manually by hand, with the utmost care and attention. If your fabric has a slightly uneven look on the edges or a touch of fraying, this does not indicate a flaw in the textile. It is not always possible to achieve a perfect straight cut with certain fabrics, so please do bear this in mind when it comes to your design. If you have any queries or would like to know about our cutting methods in more detail, please get in touch and we will be more than happy to discuss them with you. 

For further information about our fabrics see our FAQs

Please note: As everything we provide is handmade to order, you may find a slight variance in the sizes. 

You may also like: