Discuss the many aspects of plastisol (screen printed) heat transfers. Topics include where to buy, how to put them on t-shirts, quality, pictures, stock (pre printed) transfers and more. Read the definition of a plastisol transfer here.
just received my first order of plastisol transfers. i'm pressing both sides of a 100% cotton black tee. the transfers call for high pressure and after printing the first side (pocket) i'm realizing that i'll be delivering these to my customer with platen marks on them. i've shyed away from telling him that i would be using transfers so now i'm worried. without washing the whole bunch of shirts is there another way to avoid/get rid of the press marks? TIA
this happens to me as well.
i sell them with the platen marks.
if they say anything at the time of sale i assure them the marks come out after the first wash.
other then washing them i don't know how to get rid of it...
maybe steam cleaner?
thanks for the quick replies. i was thinking about repressing the entire shirt but wouldn't know how to go about it. i mean do i press one part, reposition it, then press another etc.? or press it folded as one press? that's alot of pressing and changing pressure..........yikes! i think i'd rather spend the $10 and wash 60 shirts.
I myself would never give a customer a washed shirt. They want their shirts to look new, and once you wash it and fibers lift, it no longer looks new. One little trick that works for me sometimes if I have press marks in the shirts, is to lightly mist it will distilled water to lift the fibers back up.
When ever pressing a transfer, you should always put something like a mouse pad under the print area to raise it up. This will make it so that the press edges are not pressing into the garment, but only getting pressure where the print is.
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I myself would never give a customer a washed shirt. They want their shirts to look new, and once you wash it and fibers lift, it no longer looks new. One little trick that works for me sometimes if I have press marks in the shirts, is to lightly mist it will distilled water to lift the fibers back up.
When ever pressing a transfer, you should always put something like a mouse pad under the print area to raise it up. This will make it so that the press edges are not pressing into the garment, but only getting pressure where the print is.
yeah i know.........now (after i prewashed and dried 80 shirts). i had read posts in the past where people swore by it. and then last week i started a thread where i remember your response which made alot of sense to me (about people with allergies and the different detergents etc.). this is my first REAL job and i just wanted to do everything possible to give the customer the best. now it's this problem with the platen marks. i really like the way the transfers came out it's just when you hold the shirt up it's obvious that it was pressed. so i'm thinking that they've already been washed once, why not twice?
I did some charcoal shirts tonight and they had an outline, but it seemed to fade over a few minutes. I spritzed some with water, it seemed to help too.
Do not wash the shirts. they are buying new shirts not used shirts. Dont worry about the marks. If you look very close at a screen printed shirt as soon as you pick it up after printing , you will see platen marks to. Dont worry yourself over it.
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Originally Posted by miktoxic
thanks for the quick replies. i was thinking about repressing the entire shirt but wouldn't know how to go about it. i mean do i press one part, reposition it, then press another etc.? or press it folded as one press? that's alot of pressing and changing pressure..........yikes! i think i'd rather spend the $10 and wash 60 shirts.
I throw the shirts with a damp towel, in the dryer to get rid of my platen marks as well as any size mouse pad marks. Mike P.S. I only use pre shrunk shirts though.
the customer bought the shirts and gave them to me so he knows they are not 'used'. he's also a friend so that gives me some leeway. i thought that if you applied ink or vinyl to 100% cotton that wasn't pre-shrunk that the shirt would shrink (once dried) and not the print, leaving wrinkles etc. now i know. thanks all!
Don't worry about it. The marks will fade after a little time and I've never had anyone even mention it. A teflon pillow does help a bit, they're also just nice to have.
We print on mostly Bamboo fabrics and regardless of the pressure it leaves terrible platen marks.
Even when you use a pillow or mousepad, you will still have some sort of box around your design.
I would Never sell a garment with press marks on it!! ( If you want to keep a good reputation!!)
Repressing the whole shirt?? looks terrible!! You will see the seams and especially the neck pressed in the back of the shirt.
We sell most our garments in our retailstore and only a small percentage of our business goes to custom orders for other companies.
The only way we get our garments to look decent without press marks is by steaming them!!
It takes several minutes for each shirt, but you will have a professional end result.. ( and that is what we are after!!)
You can buy a steamer at Wallmart for $50.00 ----> $125.00
Hang your shirt on a hanger and go up and down with the steamer......the press marks will disappear right in front of your eyes.
The customer will now receive a proffesional printed garment without wrinkles and Press marks.
A happy customer will come back to you and also tell his friends!!
In the end YOU will also get the business from the other clothing printers, because no customer wants to buy a shirt with Ugly shirt press marks and the Guy behind the counter telling you it will get better after you wash it.
Maybe if your customer is looking for the cheapest chinese $1.50 giveaway promo shirts this is acceptable?
I haven't tried the the damp towel in the dryer, but I am going to give that a go?
In my trials i did trie a garment rack with zipper tent around it...put the steamer in the bottom for a 1/2 hour to raise the humidity to nearly a 100%.... this faded the press mark a little, but it was still visible.
delivering shirts with platen marks? 
Re: delivering shirts with platen marks? 
