Ironed My First Shirt - Red Bled Through!

[carol-lamb]

I just attempted my first shirt. I ironed on a stick figure family design on a red shirt and as the title says, the red of the shirt bled through. Now, I thought I had read enough posts on how to solve this problem, but I obviously ironed for too long a period and maybe the heat was too high?!?!? I'm so mad. I'm washing another red shirt right now and just printed another transfer. I will try again tomorrow. The shirt is so cute though - that design looks so good on a red shirt!! I got the shirt on sale at Michaels for $2.50 so I'm not out that much. I will give it one more shot on another red shirt and if that doesn't work, then I will use white shirts.

I used an HP dark transfer and the directions say to set the iron on the highest cotton setting. My iron has numbered settings (1-7) cotton being 6 (that is what I had it on). Do you think I should lower the temperature and reduce the amount of ironing time? The directions say to iron with light pressure for 1 minute if the design is a half page (my design is a little smaller than half a page) - and then iron with firm pressure for an additional minute. It had to have been on my last one or two passes that made the red bleed because I didn't see the red through the overlay paper until the very end of my ironing time.

Any ironing suggestions would be much appreciated!

Carol

 

[MrsSilvaStrat]

do you have any water in your iron?

last night i thought that i had emptied out all the water and dried the iron off, well i let it heat up for about 5 min and when i went to iron on my design some water crept out and now i have darker pink "iron-spots" on my light pink design. Luckily it was just a design for myself that I just threw some sparkles over and you can't notice it too much. But still - I feel your pain and just wanted to share this experience in case it might be helpful to you.

good luck with the rest of the shirts

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I had the same thought - you can't have any water, or else the steam might escape even if you have it set to off. Also you have to move the iron around the whole time. Also, I like to wash red clothes with a 1/2 to 1 cup of white vinegar to set the color. Otherwise I don't know what happened. We did the White baseballs on red shirts with no problem.

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

When I ironed on the HP transfers, I had the same thing happen to me.

I have never had it happen to me before this time. I found that I just could not iron them nearly as long as they said. I cut the iron time to about 1/4 of what they said, and they looked great and stuck well, even after being washed several times. (This was only about a month ago)

I would suggest just not ironing as long.

 

[millerpjm]

I had a red shirt (from Michael's also) that didn't turn out with an HP dark transfer - it bled through. I had no idea you could iron for too long!

 

[tinkerbell/pixie]

That is starange. I just had this happen to me also on a red and on a black shirt.I used hp transfers also.Thanks Amy, Now I know to cut down on the ironing time.

 

[carol-lamb]

When I ironed on the HP transfers, I had the same thing happen to me.

I have never had it happen to me before this time. I found that I just could not iron them nearly as long as they said. I cut the iron time to about 1/4 of what they said, and they looked great and stuck well, even after being washed several times. (This was only about a month ago)

I would suggest just not ironing as long.

Amy ~

Like I originally posted, I'm going to try one more red shirt to see if I can do this correctly!! I showed the shirt to my son and daughter and they both said that it does not look that bad. It's not horrible looking, but the red is noticeable through the white background. The shirt is wearable though, but I want to try and see if I can do better!!

I will cut the ironing time way down. Would you still do as the directions say and iron with light pressure first and then with firm pressure for maybe 30 seconds each, or do you still think that is too much ironing time? My design is about a 6inch x 6 inch square. Like I said, I ironed for a total of about 2 minutes (1 min @ light pressure and 1 min @ firm pressure per the directions) and it was near the end that I looked down and saw the red.

Did you also move your iron like it says in the HP transfer directions - from the bottom up to the top in parallel lines?

Carol

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

Amy ~

Like I originally posted, I'm going to try one more red shirt to see if I can do this correctly!! I showed the shirt to my son and daughter and they both said that it does not look that bad. It's not horrible looking, but the red is noticeable through the white background. The shirt is wearable though, but I want to try and see if I can do better!!

I will cut the ironing time way down. Would you still do as the directions say and iron with light pressure first and then with firm pressure for maybe 30 seconds each, or do you still think that is too much ironing time? My design is about a 6inch x 6 inch square. Like I said, I ironed for a total of about 2 minutes (1 min @ light pressure and 1 min @ firm pressure per the directions) and it was near the end that I looked down and saw the red.

Did you also move your iron like it says in the HP transfer directions - from the bottom up to the top in parallel lines?

Carol

I think what I ended up doing was like 10 to 20 sec for each pass (horizontal and vertical) with firm pressure and then a little more around the edges and corners.

I think it was more around the 10 sec mark but I forget.

 

[carol-lamb]

I think what I ended up doing was like 10 to 20 sec for each pass (horizontal and vertical) with firm pressure and then a little more around the edges and corners.

I think it was more around the 10 sec mark but I forget.

Amy ~

I attempted my second red shirt yesterday. I took your advice and cut the ironing time way down and this time the shirt turned out just fine. I did have to go over a couple of spots a little longer because the black was not dark enough - it was sort of gray looking in a few spots - so I just hit those spots for a little longer and they darkened up.

I do have a question for you though. This morning I was looking at the shirt I did yesterday and I noticed a very small spot that is still a little light - just not quite as black as the rest of the design. Since it was ironed on yesterday, do you think it is too late to hit that spot again to darken it up? I think I should leave well enough alone and just be happy that the shirt turned out with no red bleeding through!! The spot is so small that I didn't even notice it yesterday. It's not even my shirt - it's my daughter-in-laws - and I told her how nice the shirt turned out, but there was this tiny spot that I could try to get better and she said to leave it alone because she is not that fussy!! I'm just wondering for future shirts though because I still have two more stick figure family ones to do on red.

Carol

 

[M_I_C_K_E_Y]

Amy ~

I attempted my second red shirt yesterday. I took your advice and cut the ironing time way down and this time the shirt turned out just fine. I did have to go over a couple of spots a little longer because the black was not dark enough - it was sort of gray looking in a few spots - so I just hit those spots for a little longer and they darkened up.
I do have a question for you though. This morning I was looking at the shirt I did yesterday and I noticed a very small spot that is still a little light - just not quite as black as the rest of the design. Since it was ironed on yesterday, do you think it is too late to hit that spot again to darken it up? I think I should leave well enough alone and just be happy that the shirt turned out with no red bleeding through!! The spot is so small that I didn't even notice it yesterday. It's not even my shirt - it's my daughter-in-laws - and I told her how nice the shirt turned out, but there was this tiny spot that I could try to get better and she said to leave it alone because she is not that fussy!! I'm just wondering for future shirts though because I still have two more stick figure family ones to do on red.
Carol

Carol,
I am sorry I did not get back to you sooner - I was out of town and just returned tonight. I hope that you solved this problem.

If it is something that you didn't notice at first - I would have said that it was probably fine and to leave it be. But that is my personal opinion. What did you end up doing.

By the way, as long as you place the parchment paper back on, I think that there should be no problem with re-ironing a day later. I have personally never done it but have heard others mention this on the boards before.

 

[goofydebi]

I am wearing my red shirt with the stick family right now that bled through. I did 2 black ones yesterday with stick figures, and 3 royal blue with birthday designs. one black and 2 blues bled through. the difference was the ones that bled through were shirts from michaels and the ones that didn't were 100% cotton. I had to buy my DH different shirts to get a bigger size, his looks so much better. I am going to get the 100% cotton today to redo the stick figure ones. I used the hp dark and ironed a little less than the time it said, I could see the colors bleeding through as I ironed. the white shirts from michael's turned out fine. if you look at that post about the 20 steps it says to buy 100% cotton, but even in my black 100% cotton, a little bled through but i stopped ironing when i saw it.
Debbie

 

[carol-lamb]

Carol,
I am sorry I did not get back to you sooner - I was out of town and just returned tonight. I hope that you solved this problem.

If it is something that you didn't notice at first - I would have said that it was probably fine and to leave it be. But that is my personal opinion. What did you end up doing.

By the way, as long as you place the parchment paper back on, I think that there should be no problem with re-ironing a day later. I have personally never done it but have heard others mention this on the boards before.

Amy~

I showed the shirt to my DIL and she agreed that the spot is so small to just leave it alone. She was really happy with the shirt so that was good. I still have the two other ones to do and I keep putting it off!! I will probably do them later today and if they don't turn out, I think I read somewhere on the boards yesterday that Michaels has them on sale again this week so that is my incentive to try the other ones so if I wreck them, I can at least buy replacement shirts on sale!

I am wearing my red shirt with the stick family right now that bled through. I did 2 black ones yesterday with stick figures, and 3 royal blue with birthday designs. one black and 2 blues bled through. the difference was the ones that bled through were shirts from michaels and the ones that didn't were 100% cotton. I had to buy my DH different shirts to get a bigger size, his looks so much better. I am going to get the 100% cotton today to redo the stick figure ones. I used the hp dark and ironed a little less than the time it said, I could see the colors bleeding through as I ironed. the white shirts from michael's turned out fine. if you look at that post about the 20 steps it says to buy 100% cotton, but even in my black 100% cotton, a little bled through but i stopped ironing when i saw it.
Debbie

My red shirt that bled through was also from Michaels, but the second one I did was from Michaels too and it turned out pretty good. I really cut the ironing time down, but I did have to go over a few spots where the black did not get dark enough. I missed one tiny spot, but I can tell by looking at the shirt that if I would have kept ironing for even a few more seconds, the red would have started coming through - it's almost like it's right there, but not quite through!! It looks way better than the one that did bleed. I hope my other two turn out. This is way too stressful!! I have another design to put on a white shirt and that one will probably be fun to do - I just want to get the hard ones out of the way first.