FASHION INDUSTRY DICTIONARY

Define Burn-Out Printing.

Burn-out prints involve printing with a chemical substance that destroys the fiber in the pattern design print area. Thus, a hole in the fabric results where the chemical made contact with the fabric. Simulated eyelet embroideries are made with a 2-or-3 roller print, where one roller contains the fiber-destroying chemical and the other roller(s) prints a pattern simulating embroidery stitiching.

Another type of burn-out print involves fabrics that are made from blended yarns, core-spun yarns, or fabric mixtures of two or more types of fibers. The burn-out print chemical destroys one fiber (the cellulosic) and leaves the others undamaged. Many unusual and interesting fabrics are created with this method of printing. Such a fabric might be a rayon/polyester blend where each yarn is a 50/50 blend of polyester and rayon. When the burn-out printing is done, the rayon portion disappears (burn-out) leaving the polyester unchanged. The result is a gauze-like print portion of polyester and the unprinted portion of original polyester/rayon blend.