The Dos and Don'ts About Applying Heat Transfers
The Dos and Don'ts About Heat Transfers
1. A good heat transfer machine and a well known brand.
2. Know your equipment! Make sure it is accurate on the temperature and pressure. This is important when applying the transfer.
3. It needs to have a good bottom platinum where your garment will lay flat. Make sure it doesn't have holes in the rubber and it’s not loose.
4. Top plate has to be clean and nothing stuck to it.
5. Any item being applied - the surface of the area that you will be applying to has to be FLAT and make sure there are no obstacles getting in the way of having the hot plate of the transfer machine coming in contact with the transfer.
6. Recommend to preheat the area that is being decorated for 1-2 secs prior to placing the transfer.
7. It doesn't hurt to rub the surface of the transfer prior to removing the paper once the head of the machine comes up. Just to help with proper application.
8. Always find out what type of transfer application you are dealing with before you make the application. There are several types..
9. Its best to do a test run on a scrap of same material prior to doing it on the actual goods just to make sure you will have a successful application and you don't ruin any of the goods.
10. Very important to know the type of fabric you have and to make sure what the surface of the material contains. There are different application methods depending on the fabric.
We get asked often what is the best heat transfer for my project? With that we do ask a few follow up questions.
What is the actual fabric you are using
What kind of surface? ( holes, patterns, textures, finishes, etc.)
Collet more information on the material just to make sure the surface doesn’t have any type of proofing
We normally ask for an actual sample so we can test it out