Customer Reviews

Avery Personal Creations InkJet Iron-On Dark T-Shirt Transfers, White, Five Sheets per Pack (03279)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I bought these t-shirt transfers after wasting time, money and t-shirts using other brands and even the Avery brand for white t-shirts were horrible. They smeared and when washed once the image was faded beyond recognition.

A friend recommended these (even for white t-shirt use) and they are amazing. They look completely professional, are easy to use and I have washed the items a million times and no fading has occurred at all. In my opinion, using any other brand is a waste. These are worth every extra penny you spend more than the kind designated for white t-shirts.

I read a lot of good reviews and a lot of horrible reviews here, so I was very wary when using this product. There are some pitfalls that may get you, but if you are careful, you should be able achieve a beautiful result. I transferred images onto green shirts and got vibrant colors with no bleedthrough.

Assuming everyone followed instructions correctly, I think some of the problems people had might have been the result of either their printer or their iron. I happened to have access to an excellent high quality Epson R1800, 8 color, inkjet printer. If you have a low quality (or maybe just a different) printer it's possible that the colors might not end up as bright or as thick on the transfer. It's possible that even high quality printers might vary in how well they work with this particular product - I only have one data point, so I can only guess. Make sure you use the highest quality setting when you print! I did have one paper feed issue. One of my transfers got a little blurred on one end, apparently due to the transfer shifting position slightly while being printed. Luckily, it was not a critical part of the image.

I think some other problems people have described might have been the result of the iron temperature being too hot (bubbling) or not hot enough (peeling). I guess irons can vary. I think the hottest setting of my iron might have been just a little on the cool side. I found that I got better results by increasing ironing time. I got no bubbling or burning. If you're seeing bubbling, you might want to turn the iron temp down slightly or decrease ironing time. If at all possible, you should print several testing pieces and practice ironing them on scrap fabric first (I used an old shirt from the rag box). If your design is not full-page, then you can use extra space on each page for a test design and cut that out separately. Obviously, if you do it this way, the picture you are printing has to include both your real design as well as the test. If you have an extra transfer sheet, you can print a page of several smaller test designs on the extra sheet. The tests will allow you to calibrate your iron temperature and ironing time.

For my task, I had no extra sheets. I needed to make 5 shirts with a logo on the front (~2.5" square) and big design on the back (~7" square). I could fit those both on the same sheet along with an extra logo. So, when printed and cut out, I had 5 extra logos to use for testing.

Even though I had bought pre-shrunk cotton shirts, I washed and dried them before applying the transfer just to be safe.

Others mentioned problems removing the backing from the transfer. When I cut out my design, I made sure to leave little 1/2" tabs at one corner so I wouldn't mess up the design when trying to peel off the backing. This worked well in most cases. I could bend and mangle the tab to start the peeling process without damaging my design. Once the backing started peeling away properly it came all the way off easily. Once the backing is removed (or partly removed), you can trim the tab off with scissors. With about 75% of my pieces, this worked fine, but on some, the backing seemed to come off a little but then didn't peel properly. When this happened, I quickly abandoned that corner and moved to the opposite corner of the design and was able to separate the backing correctly from there. A sharp fingernail really helps with this (I wish mine had been just a bit longer). In hindsight, it would have helped to have tabs on two opposite corners in case one corner didn't work. I'm guessing that along one (or more) edges of the transfer sheet, the backing may be stuck on just a bit more tenaciously so that it doesn't peel off accidentally (or in the printer). Luckily, I was always able to find a place on my design where I could peel the backing away properly. Once the backing started peeling away correctly from one side, the corners that originally had trouble on the other side peeled off just fine.

When I was done, I washed the shirts again and the results looked good. Colors still bright, no peeling or cracking. Time will tell how well they hold up.

How to avoid pitfalls:

* Pre-wash shirts.
* Use highest quality setting when printing.
* Print a few test transfers (can be small) to help calibrate iron.
Bubbling: turn iron temp down or reduce ironing time
Peeling: increase ironing time, really press down firmly on the iron. Pay special attention to edges and corners
* If possible, leave tabs on 2 opposite corners of your design to aid in removing backing - trim off later.
* If backing is not coming off properly, stop immediately and try from opposite corner.
* It's probably best to cut away at least 1/4" from edge of sheet.
* The tissue paper backing can be reused! This is useful to know if you are making multiple smaller designs on each sheet. No need to trim the tissue paper, always just use the full sheet, there's less chance of slipping.
* If you place the backing-removed transfer on a hot shirt, it may start to curl up at the edges. Have your tissue paper handy to immediately place over the transfer.

Some people are saying that the colors bleed through dark colored shirts but this only happens when you're applying too much heat or applying the heat for too long.

I know this because I ironed on a larger image, but incidentally I ironed the print unevenly. The outside boarders had the original color of the print rather than colors that bled.

I recommend either turning down the heat a bit or ironing the image more rapidly.

Good luck and happy printing/ironing.

This is a great quality product. Best quality transfer paper I've ever used. It's pretty expensive if you buy it here though. You can get this same exact product at your local Office Depot for a cheaper price plus you don't have to pay shipping/handling.

I have used the Avery transfers for white/light before with good luck on a white shirt. So, now I've tried this to put transfers on dark color shirts. They worked ok. The color of the shirt shows through the lighter colors on my design, so the colors are "off" from what I wanted. And the colors are a little dull. But I had no problem with the transfer itself and it went through one wash/dry well. For comparison, I tried the white/light transfer on the same dark color to comare, and the colors did turn out better with the dark transfer paper. I haven't used any other transfer paper on dark colors for comparison, but I was a little disappointed in the performance, but it's acceptable.

I am making team t-shirts on navy, and royal blue t-shirts. These transfers worked beautifully. After reading the reviews, I was very careful to read the instructions VERY carefully. As long as you follow the instructions, there are no problems. The artwork transferred very well to the t-shirt with no bleed through.

I only had two mishaps: 1, I used the transfer sheet at its orginal size, well the cover paper they give you to use with the transfer is just as large as the transfer paper. The cover paper slipped a little while ironing, and spread a little on the t-shirt, as well as got on my iron. If you are going to use the full size transfer paper I suggest using two sheets of the cover paper overlapping to make sure there is no slippage. I was able to brush off the mistake after it cooled a little, and you really can't tell it was ever there. The second mishap I encountered was that I was putting a small logo on the front of the t-shirt, and inadvertently burned it just a little (its a little dark), since while ironing I never did move off the logo because it was so small. Now when putting on the smaller logo, I make sure my iron completely moves off the transfer periodically, and shorten the ironing time just a bit. A good product, you just need to follow the directions.

Also, I found by transfers at Office Depot for about $4 less than what is advertised on Amazon. I was anxious to try them out so decided to buy them local. Usually Amazon has the lowest prices, but I guess they can't do it all the time.

Worked great, just read and follow the guide. We used them on a few types of materials and they worked great for each one.

Colours are good, transfers have done fine in the washing machine and even drier.

I suggest you just read the instructions and ensure you are following the guidelines for DARK and you should have no issues.

backing is removed before you iron it not after.

was able to cut up the sheets after printing to make lots of small, large and odd shaped tranfers.



OK ONE YEAR later, some of the first group of tee shirts are still being worn from time to time, the tranfers are working great and are not cracking falling off or anything

Also just a tip you can cut these sheets up small and place pictures all over.

I tried to use these on a black t-shirt, and it worked.... sort of.
The colors were significantly less bright after ironing them on.
The image was there, it was just... very dull. Not what I expected.

My sons school does not sell shirts for soccer team fans so I bought these to make my own shirts. They worked wonderfully. I got tons of comliments on how the shirts turned out. The colors were bright and really stood out. These iron ons are also easy to use for the most part adn I would have given them 5 stars but these sheets required you to peel off the backing and it was very difficult to get it off.

This paper is expensive for 5 sheets, but I pretty much expect that, what I didn't expect was the final results to be so poor / mediocre. I tried ironing on very carefully as per the instructions and the design was inconsistent with one area brighter white and the rest very dark apparently from the white ink flowing into black printed areas by the motion of the iron so I thought I should pay to get the future designs heat pressed straight on. The result was a whole image that while visible was consistent grey throughout the image where white parts should be and a darkening of all colors. Not very good, even if better than a light T-shirt transfer on black shirt. Very mediocre result. Also i noticed this paper had a tendency to fight a bit with the printer messing up the first sheet I did and causing other sheets to have whole design rotated different to the angle of the paper. The backing is also very, very difficult to remove unless you gently tear the paper on an edge. Not nearly as good as the reviews, description or example on the packaging had lead me to believe, the white will almost never will be true white with this paper.