One of the most basic and indeed easiest of methods when heat pressing a t-shirt is the good old fashioned way – by use of an iron!
A tried and tested favorite, before the popularity of machines such as those fabulous heat presses, using an iron was perhaps the only effective way to get your transfers onto a t-shirt.
While it wasn’t the most practical of ways for those looking at transferring large amounts of designs, for the odd project, it was effective enough to do the job well.
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Where Using an Iron to Heat Press Your T-shirts Comes in Handy
Some readers may be wondering exactly why people still feel the need to revert to something as basic as a domestic appliance as that of the iron? This may be especially puzzling to some when it comes to the ever-changing world of design.
In fact, the iron still has a vital part to play in enabling heat transfer vinyl to be used on the material.
This is a perfect choice if you:
- Are short on space in your studio or home
- Want to do the task yourself
- Want to perform a quick and simple project
- Have just the odd t-shirt that needs pressing
- Need ultra-quick results
- Don’t have any heat press machine experience or knowledge
- Want to create a different effect to that of the heat press
- Find your budget can’t yet stretch to using or even purchasing a machine to do this task for you!
A Step by Step Guide to Heat Press a T-Shirt with An Iron
Getting started using an iron to heat press your t-shirt is relatively straightforward and requires minimal accessories.
Items You’ll Need:
- An iron
- A well-spaced table or desk
- An ironing mat (or preferably a heat transfer pillow)
- A t-shirt
- Your chosen design using a heat transfer vinyl
- A Teflon sheet to protect your iron
The Ten-Step Easy Process:
- Ensure you have a clear working surface and can work on a designated ironing mat or heat transfer pillow.
- Turn your iron to a medium setting and switch it on, allowing a few minutes for it to reach temperature.
- Iron the t-shirt you want to work on first to remove any wrinkles, starting with a smooth finish.
- Put your chosen design of heat transfer vinyl in the place where you want your design to go.
- Take your Teflon sheet, or whatever else you’ve chosen to protect your iron, and place it carefully over the design. Here you can also use parchment paper, soft kitchen towel, or a terry cloth.
- Place the iron on top of your t-shirt, applying pressure by slowing moving around, covering all areas of the design.
- Do this for just under a minute.
- Allow your design to cool down completely – it should not be hot to the touch as this indicates it’s not yet ready.
- When your design is cool, slowly start peeling off the top sheet of your vinyl.
- Your t-shirt should now be perfectly pressed with a brand new design and look as good as those professional and shop-bought t-shirts!
Tips for Getting the Best Press Results from Your Iron
Though this whole process is relatively simple, there are a few areas where you can increase your chances of getting the job done first time round.
- Always keep your iron on a dry setting. Heat pressing does not work with the steam element of an iron. Therefore, you’ll need to be sure if you do have this ability on your appliance it’s not activated, so your project remains completely dry throughout the process.
- Some people assume that when using heat transfer vinyl in this way, the iron should be at its highest temperature. It’s also believed by many that you need to press the iron on the t-shirt with excessive force and hold it for that minute! Neither suggestion should be attempted as by doing so, it can actually ruin your adhesives, your shirt, and even your iron. Therefore, for many, a medium or even basic cotton iron setting does the trick – while gently moving the iron over the design ensures the whole design is applied.
- If you have a transfer that you want lining up in the middle of your shirt, carefully fold the transfer in half, sticky side out. This will not ruin it, rather offer you a faint line to position neatly on your t-shirt with.
- Never be tempted to iron on your heat transfer vinyl directly. By doing so, you will not only wreck your design but may also damage your iron in the process.
- Sometimes the trick to getting the most successful result here all comes down to getting the balance right. That is the balance between selecting just the right amount of heat from the iron as well as placing just the right amount of pressure on to the t-shirt. Therefore, practice will make perfect here!
- Though heat transfer vinyl is perfect for this task, you can, in fact, create any design from your computer and print it off onto specially designed transfer paper. As long as the paper you’re using is a transfer paper type, it should be more than capable of coping with the ironing process.
You’ll find some useful tips below from MD Textile on using an iron to press your t-shirt design – enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVETG7hf15Q
Using the Iron as the First Step Towards a Heat Press
As you may have noticed, we talk a lot about heat presses on this website! Though many of us have started out with the good old iron as a means of printing t-shirts, when it comes to mass production, unfortunately the iron just won’t cut it.
This is where a heat press machine comes into its own. Quicker in operation and able to reach the most perfect of temperatures for whatever item is being pressed, a heat press is certainly worth thinking about if you’re looking to make t-shirt printing a regular thing.
The next stage up to the trusted iron, if you find that you’ve exhausted all you can do with the iron, why not take a look around the site, particularly our article on those best heat press machines for beginners.
We guarantee that once you start heat pressing t-shirts using an iron, you’ll soon become addicted to this fantastic craft and want to take it further.
