If you have ever used heat transfer vinyl or even heat transfers printed on your ink-jet printer you’re going to make mistakes. Whether it is forgetting to weed certain areas or having a stray piece of the vinyl stick where it shouldn’t, there are easy fixes. If you are new to heat transfers read more about how to use them here or heat transfer vinyl here.
Remove HTV with adhesive remover.
Fix #1 is the use of Goo Gone or similar adhesive removal product.
The first thing to do once you realize your mistake is to heat up the vinyl again. If you are using a heat press, I wouldn’t close the heat press on the area again. Just place the garment under the heat platen for a minute or two. If you were using an iron to do this keep moving the iron over the area to warm it up.
Next spray the area liberally with Goo Gone on both the outside and inside of the garment. You really need the adhesive remover to get in all the nooks and crannies it can. Let that sit for a couple of minutes under the heat platen again.
We may need to repeat the above steps to get the vinyl to come off. Heat transfers made of plastisol and your transfers purchased from the local art supply store will likely only need on treatment.
After letting it soak in the Goo Gone. You will need tweezers or similar tool. Try and grab a corner with the tweezers and start pulling the vinyl away from the shirt. It is likely to come off in small pieces but keep plugging away and eventually, you will have it all removed.
Remember to wash and dry your t-shirt before trying to apply the heat transfer again. It is not likely to stick in the areas treated with Goo Gone.
Remove HTV with an embossing gun.
If you don’t want to use chemicals to remove your vinyl, tip #2 is for you. All you will need is tweezers and an embossing gun.
Since we can press heat transfers onto almost any fabric, you may not want to use Goo Gone because of the washability factor. Not all blanks will hold up to a ride in the washing machine.
With this method, you take your little embossing heat tool, available on Amazon (check one out here). It is kind of like a tiny little hair dryer but gets much hotter, so be careful. Start heating up the area the is messed up. With your tweezers in hand, start picking away at the vinyl. It is likely to come off in small pieces as mentioned in tip #1 but sometimes you get lucky, and the whole piece comes off.
Remember to keep the embossing heat tool a few inches away from the fabric and vinyl transfer. This tool gets hot and may scorch the fabric and the rest of vinyl on the fabric. Also, work slowly and carefully in areas with overlapping vinyl. You don’t want to peel up areas that are printed correctly.
Remove heat transfers with wax paper.
For this method, you will need a few more items to get the job done, but it is likely you have all of the items in your home already.
Items you will need:
– Bath towel
– Waxed paper
– Iron
– Plastic knife
– Cotton swabs
– Isopropyl alcohol
Start by placing the bath towel on a flat surface and then place the t-shirt on the towel with the printing face up. Next, you will place the waxed paper over the printed area.
With the iron set for high cotton, iron the waxed paper until the printing melts onto the paper. After sufficient melting has occurred, start picking at the printing with the plastic knife until it is completely removed.
If you fail to remove all of the printing, turn the t-shirt inside out and place it on the bath towel again.
Next, take a cotton swab and dip it in the alcohol and saturate the fabric behind the print. Let the alcohol soak in for at least 20 seconds. Turn the t-shirt right side out and start picking away at the printing again.
If you still don’t get all the printing removed, repeat the process.
Bonus Tips
Bonus Tip #1
Sometimes with plastisol and vinyl heat transfers you get small areas that won’t stick for some reason. It may be something on the shirt or even on the transfer that stops it from adhering properly.
With heat transfer vinyl you can recut a piece to cover the area and repress it. With plastisol transfers, you can also use a small piece of vinyl to cover the affected area or trim off a piece of plastisol transfer from another transfer and press right over the missing area.
Vinyl works well with layering so you will hardly notice the new layer.
Bonus Tip #2
This one will only work with solid color fabrics and generally only with t-shirts. Say you have a larger area of the transfer that you forgot to weed and you pressed the shirt. Since most vinyl and t-shirts are close on the color match, simply cut a new piece of vinyl matching the area from vinyl that matches the shirt.
I would use this tip only if the product is for a good friend or for your own use. The shirt will look good for the first few times of wear, but after continued washing, the vinyl won’t fade but the t-shirt will.
Conclusion
As you are starting out and don’t want to invest a lot of money into t-shirt blanks, these methods will be useful. However, as your business or hobby grows and you are printing more and more t-shirts. Just throw away the mistakes and redo them. It won’t be worth your time or effort.