Rayon (Viscose)

Rayon starts as wood pulp, usually from eucalyptus, pine, or bamboo, dissolved in a chemical bath and forced through spinnerets into continuous filament — which is why it's called semi-synthetic rather than natural or synthetic. The process is the same one that produces modal and lyocell; rayon is simply the original, less-refined version, with a looser fiber structure that drapes beautifully but loses a large share of its strength when wet and shrinks unpredictably if it isn't handled carefully in the wash.

Buyers meet rayon constantly without knowing it — it's the third fiber in most cotton/poly/rayon tri-blend tees, like Bella+Canvas's 3413, where a 25-50% rayon share is what gives that shirt its heather marl look and soft, almost worn-in drape straight off the shelf. We steer anyone printing on a rayon-heavy tri-blend toward a lighter ink deposit, because the fabric's loose weave lets standard plastisol sit heavy and stiffen the drape the fiber is there to create.

Spec rayon blends for soft, vintage-feel apparel and event merch where hand matters more than durability, and avoid them for anything headed to a commercial laundry — rayon tolerates gentle machine washing but not high heat or repeated hot-water cycles. Garment-dyed rayon blends also take dye less evenly than straight cotton, so expect more shade variance between dye lots.

The mistake we see most is buyers assuming "rayon" means cheap or fragile because it isn't cotton. In a tri-blend it's doing the opposite job — softening the hand and adding drape that 100% cotton jersey doesn't have — the trade-off is care, not quality.