How To Get Heat Press Vinyl Off Shirt

Making a mistake while transferring vinyl to a shirt is very common. However, a mistake does not mean that you should throw the entire shirt away.

As impossible as it sounds, there are ways for you to remove heat-pressed vinyl from a shirt. In fact, you can even re-press the same shirt with a new vinyl design.

There are two methods for removing vinyl from a shirt that have proven to work. For your convenience, I am sharing both of those two procedures below.

How To Get Heat Press Vinyl Off Shirt

With the aid of these two methods, you will be able to get vinyl off your shirt.

Method 1

Items Required

There are a couple of things that you will need if you are attempting to remove heat press vinyl from your shirt. The first thing that you will need is a bottle of vinyl lifting liquid. You will also need a pair of tweezers, for peeling the vinyl, a heat press, and a sheet of butcher paper.

Step 1

Take the shirt that has the heat-pressed vinyl to a clean table. Turn the shirt inside out, and squirt some vinyl lifting liquid on the backside of the print. Place the bottle down and pick up your tweezers. Grab the vinyl print by the edge with the tweezers and start pulling. Make sure to pull the vinyl carefully.

 

Step 2

If there is some resistance, and the vinyl does not peel off, then you need to flip the shirt back to its right side and apply some liquid directly to the vinyl print. Keep squirting the liquid, and peeling the vinyl till you have removed all of the heat-pressed vinyl from the shirt.

 

Step 3

After removing the vinyl, the adhesive that was under the vinyl will appear on the surface of the shirt. For that, you need a sheet of butcher paper and your heat press. Place the shirt into the heat press, and place the butcher paper right on top of the adhesive. Shut the top platen down and press the shirt. After a couple of seconds, lift the top platen and the butcher paper. You will notice that some part of the adhesive will have lifted from the shirt and stuck to the butcher paper instead. Keep repeating this procedure till you have lifted off all the adhesive from the shirt.

 

Method 2

Items Required

For the second method, you will need a pair of gloves, a small iron, a pair of tweezers, your heat-press, and a sheet of butcher paper.

Step 1

Take the shirt, and place it onto the iron. Make sure that the right side of the shirt is facing outwards, and you place the iron on the inside. Furthermore, the iron should be right under the letter or the vinyl design that you want to remove.

Step 2

Once you notice that the material of the shirt has heated, take the tweezers, and hold the vinyl design from an edge. Start peeling it carefully, and the vinyl will start coming off. The heat from the iron makes the adhesive of the vinyl soft, which helps in removing the heat-pressed vinyl from the shirt. However, you need to be very careful with this method, as it involves a hot iron. Make sure that you are wearing protective gloves at all times.

Step 3

Once the heat-pressed vinyl starts lifting from the shirt, the adhesive under the vinyl will make an appearance. Place your shirt in your heat press. Take a sheet of butcher paper, place it on top of the adhesive, and press the shirt for a couple of seconds. Keep pressing the shirt till the adhesive has completely transferred from the shirt to the butcher paper.

Conclusion

We all make mistakes while working with a heat press. However, even with vinyl transfers, the mistakes can be fixed. Give a thorough read to the article above, as it contains the two methods for removing vinyl from a shirt.