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I read a lot of good reviews and a lot of horrible reviews here, so I was very wary when using this product. There are some pitfalls that may get you, but if you are careful, you should be able achieve a beautiful result. I transferred images onto green shirts and got vibrant colors with no bleedthrough.
Assuming everyone followed instructions correctly, I think some of the problems people had might have been the result of either their printer or their iron. I happened to have access to an excellent high quality Epson R1800, 8 color, inkjet printer. If you have a low quality (or maybe just a different) printer it's possible that the colors might not end up as bright or as thick on the transfer. It's possible that even high quality printers might vary in how well they work with this particular product I only have one data point, so I can only guess. Make sure you use the highest quality setting when you print! I did have one paper feed issue. One of my transfers got a little blurred on one end, apparently due to the transfer shifting position slightly while being printed. Luckily, it was not a critical part of the image.
I think some other problems people have described might have been the result of the iron temperature being too hot (bubbling) or not hot enough (peeling). I guess irons can vary. I think the hottest setting of my iron might have been just a little on the cool side. I found that I got better results by increasing ironing time. I got no bubbling or burning. If you're seeing bubbling, you might want to turn the iron temp down slightly or decrease ironing time. If at all possible, you should print several testing pieces and practice ironing them on scrap fabric first (I used an old shirt from the rag box). If your design is not full-page, then you can use extra space on each page for a test design and cut that out separately. Obviously, if you do it this way, the picture you are printing has to include both your real design as well as the test. If you have an extra transfer sheet, you can print a page of several smaller test designs on the extra sheet. The tests will allow you to calibrate your iron temperature and ironing time.
For my task, I had no extra sheets. I needed to make 5 shirts with a logo on the front (~2.5" square) and big design on the back (~7" square). I could fit those both on the same sheet along with an extra logo. So, when printed and cut out, I had 5 extra logos to use for testing.
Even though I had bought pre-shrunk cotton shirts, I washed and dried them before applying the transfer just to be safe.
Others mentioned problems removing the backing from the transfer. When I cut out my design, I made sure to leave little 1/2" tabs at one corner so I wouldn't mess up the design when trying to peel off the backing. This worked well in most cases. I could bend and mangle the tab to start the peeling process without damaging my design. Once the backing started peeling away properly it came all the way off easily. Once the backing is removed (or partly removed), you can trim the tab off with scissors. With about 75% of my pieces, this worked fine, but on some, the backing seemed to come off a little but then didn't peel properly. When this happened, I quickly abandoned that corner and moved to the opposite corner of the design and was able to separate the backing correctly from there. A sharp fingernail really helps with this (I wish mine had been just a bit longer). In hindsight, it would have helped to have tabs on two opposite corners in case one corner didn't work. I'm guessing that along one (or more) edges of the transfer sheet, the backing may be stuck on just a bit more tenaciously so that it doesn't peel off accidentally (or in the printer). Luckily, I was always able to find a place on my design where I could peel the backing away properly. Once the backing started peeling away correctly from one side, the corners that originally had trouble on the other side peeled off just fine.
When I was done, I washed the shirts again and the results looked good. Colors still bright, no peeling or cracking. Time will tell how well they hold up.
How to avoid pitfalls:
* Pre-wash shirts.
* Use highest quality setting when printing.
* Print a few test transfers (can be small) to help calibrate iron.
Bubbling: turn iron temp down or reduce ironing time
Peeling: increase ironing time, really press down firmly on the iron. Pay special attention to edges and corners
* If possible, leave tabs on 2 opposite corners of your design to aid in removing backing trim off later.
* If backing is not coming off properly, stop immediately and try from opposite corner.
* It's probably best to cut away at least 1/4" from edge of sheet.
* The tissue paper backing can be reused! This is useful to know if you are making multiple smaller designs on each sheet. No need to trim the tissue paper, always just use the full sheet, there's less chance of slipping.
* If you place the backing-removed transfer on a hot shirt, it may start to curl up at the edges. Have your tissue paper handy to immediately place over the transfer.
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