"Iron On" shirts

When I was a kid I used to have ton of "Iron Ons". For you kids that don't know, that's when you would take a blank shirt and apply a picture to that shirt and use an iron to put it on the shirt.

I was looking around in Walmart and found some "Iron On" paper. You print the image on the paper and then iron it to the shirt. I have no idea how well it will work but I think I am going to try. I have these:



Gonna use a good quality printer and try it out. If you would like these iron ons, PM me with your e-mail address and I can send them to you in a zip file. Not sure when I will get around to doing this because I planned on doing it about 10 years ago and completely forgot I had these transfers until I ran across them yesterday.

I remember iron-ons quite well.  As a matter of fact, they still exist.  If you do Lifeway's VBS, that is how you can get more cost efficient shirts.  They will sell either printed shirts or iron-ons with their yearly designs.  So, I have had to help make shirts several times over the years before we quit using Lifeway.

I'll take a copy of those, please!

If I buy some of the paper, I might play around and see about doing a Christian Hard Music logo shirt just for giggles.

Wally World has some similar designs.  Once in a while, I'll pick one up.

Def had my share of iron-ons as a kid. Love the classic old pix you're planning on using. And yes, I am one who has had experience with printer iron-ons. They're "OK". Back when the Union went on strike in 2003 and drug all of us employees with them, we had to do the picket line thing if we wanted to make a few bucks every week - So being designated computer guy back then, I ended up doing shirts with all the strike info on them for people. The colors aren't as bright as on the computer screen, but my shirt looked ok. As for washings, it clearly faded with each wash, until about a dozen washes when it was too faded to wear without embarrassment.
So, that was 2003, hopefully they've improved it a bunch since then.

(Oh, and btw, the Union LOST, all of us employees lost a ton of income, and I stuck my tongue at the whole thing when another pharmacy in town called me and asked if I wanted to picket, or if I wanted to work.... The picket sign was still spinning in mid-air by the time I ran into my new position  )

I tried it out this morning. I don't have a shirt yet but the print looks decent. It has a few streaks but not very noticeable (it's this printer). I need to find a light/powder blue t-shirt. When I went to Walmart all they had were safety colors (bright orange, yellow, green) or dark colors. Funny how Walmart never keeps anything in stock, I saw some t-shirts (Hanes) in there a few months ago and bought some white under shirts and now they don't have ANY Hanes just bright or dark FOLoom.

Ok finally got around to trying it out. 



I put it on a wooden cutting board. It says not to use an ironing board. Then I trimmed the edges as stated in directions and placed it on the shirt.



Then I ironed it for 3 or 4 minutes but it didn't stick to the shirt. So I left it on the shirt and turned up the iron to the hottest setting. 

It worked!



However it is kind of dark and may not go well on this blue shirt. I have a light gray shirt I will try next. Not sure which one I want to try. Either the Sand person or the Storm troopers since they are kind of lighter colors. Not sure why this one turned out so blue. I'm actually surprised it work. Wonder how many washes it will survive?

A while back I was looking at starting up a business printing custom shirts. The hand iron ones don't last very long, which is not very far from the ones we had back in the 70's.

I would say it is a step in quality below the ones from the 70's. I remember those to have a high gloss to them. This is rather dull looking but I am glad it worked.

MikeInFla wrote:

I would say it is a step in quality below the ones from the 70's. I remember those to have a high gloss to them. This is rather dull looking but I am glad it worked.

There are one that have more of a gloss to them, but they tend to be thicker and crack.

It does look like it has already faded a bit (but that makes it vintage!).  But still better than having to pay $25+ for an online shirt of likely the same quality (or worse).

Staybrite wrote:

It does look like it has already faded a bit (but that makes it vintage!).  But still better than having to pay $25+ for an online shirt of likely the same quality (or worse).

I bought two blank shirts for about 5 or 6 bucks and the transfers were free. The paper was the most expensive, I think it was $9 for 8 sheets. Still cheaper than buying somewhere else!

Looks cool ! I like the tone of it better than real bright.

I also agree with:

Quote :

I would say it is a step in quality below the ones from the 70's. 

I always liked the high gloss ones. Still haven'y made another yet, might try this weekend.

Ha, this is how I ended up in the Marines!

Candlemass wrote:

Ha, this is how I ended up in the Marines!

Now that sounds like it could be a very interesting story.