5 Simple Steps for Great T-Shirt Heat Transfers

Iron-on transfer is a fun way of customizing your wardrobe. However, you must follow these simple steps to make sure you will end up with a quality finished product: prepare all needed materials, print an image on the transfer paper, position the paper properly, place the shirt on a hard surface, and iron the image to transfer.

Iron-on transfers are images used to creat custom designs on fabrics such as T-shirts, purses, Shorts, and other fun materials. The iron-on process makes use of a transfer paper and heat press and is more advantageous over screen-printing because of the availability of more intricate and colorful designs. That is why some manufactures in the apparel industry prefer this type of printing: they can offer a better selection to their clients. However, do-it-yourself iron-on transfer for shirts and other items is really very popular because it is relatively affordable and less expensive than store-bought items. If you want to make your own iron-on, follow these simple steps to make sure you have a quality outcome:

Collect all needed materials

The first thing to do is to prepare all needed and appropriate materials such as image software, garments, transfer paper, printer, and Heat source such as iron. Make sure you have purchased the right type of paper since white and colored shirts require different types of transfer paper. Preferably, a laser printer must be used for optimum quality. Using inferior products will almost always guarantee poor quality product.

How to print the image onto the heat transfer paper

Using your selected software, select an image to be printed on the paper. Make sure it is the right size and color by printing a sample copy on an ordinary paper. Transfer paper can only be used once, so you want to make sure your image is correct before printing it onto the your paper. Once you are pleased with your image and don't need to make any more corrections, print your design on the transfer sheet. Make sure your sheet is inserted correctly into your printer.

How to properly position the paper

For best results, turn the paper face-down onto the garment. When placed the wrong way, you might get irreversible backward texts or upturned images. So to avoid such occurrence, always test printing on sample fabrics before ironing your image onto the final fabric.

Place the shirt on a hard surface

It is not only best, but required that you place the shirt on a hard surface. This will also avoid wrinkling. Aside from even distribution, a hard and flat surface is essential so that heat dispersion is minimized and you get a complete transfer.

Time to transfer the image

Instructions must be read carefully prior to ironing since temperature requirements differ and depend on the type and color of the shirt. Where possible, use parchment paper on top of the transfer paper to avoid excessive heat which could damage the image. Using a circular motion, apply heat up to several minutes to all edges of the picture. Once done, slowly peel off the paper to reveal the finished product.

That's all there is to it!

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