How can we make cloth or clothing material glow in the dark?

This has been asked many times. To answer this, we have to look into your requirements like whether you want the whole piece of clothing to glow or just want a part of it, like a design to glow. Your production capabilities or access to it would also have to be considered.

Some have asked as to whether painting on cloth works. It does not for two reasons.

The first is because, most paints are produced for painting on hard surfaces and cloth is not one of them. Painting on cloth produces a stiff and brittle surface. After a few uses or washes, the paint is bound to crack and peel.

Next, cloth is and has to be flexible for comfort, if it is to be worn. Painting it, creates a stiff patch which makes it uncomfortable for those wearing it.

Glow in the Dark Clothes

The only way to produce glow in the dark clothes where the whole garment glows in the dark would be to use our glow thread or glow fibre. You might have to engage the services of a professional garment maker for this. Our Glow thread / fibre are dyed in glow pigment and sent through a chemical process to ensure the glow pigment stays even after hundreds of wash cycles. Best part of it is that it feels just like natural cloth.

Glow in the Dark Designs on Cloth Material

Here we discuss on the different ways of making glow in the dark designs on clothes and garments.

If you are familiar with embroidery, you could use the glow thread and stitch these designs. Stitching these designs using the glow thread ensures of a long lasting, machine washable material, with a glowing design.

The next method would be silk screen printing using our specially formulated water based inks. This ink is called “TG-Med” and is meant for use on clothing material. This ink is water based but also water proof. Once dry, it can withstand about a hundred or so machine wash cycles. When applied on clothing, it dries to form a flexible, rubbery kind of surface that does not crack or peel.

TG Med Ink is best applied using the Silk Screen Printing method. It can also be applied using brush by diluting it with water, but we recommend silk screen printing.

TG Med is only the Clear Water based ink that can be applied onto clothing material. It does not glow in the dark. To make it glow in the dark, you would have to mix glow in the dark powder into it and the screen print your designs.

You can order Glow in the Dark Powder and TG Med Inks together in our Store. For product quality and shelf life issues, we do not sell this pre-mixed. You would receive your glow powder and TG Med ink in separate containers. Mixing instructions would be included with your order.

If you are interested in making glow in the dark clothing materials, we recommend following the guidelines mentioned above as they have been tried and tested. Other methods or products do not work.

We hope you found this information useful. If you have any questions or would like to add some tips and tricks, send us an email.