Adventures in Using Iron On Transfers
- Aug 13
- 4 min read
In the ancient days of my youth, a.k.a. the '90's, craft stores used to carry a variety of fun and cutesy iron on transfers. You could put them on anything -- sweatshirts, tote bags, t-shirts, pillows, aprons, and more! The designs came printed on special iron on transfer paper, and all you had to do was carefully cut them out and follow the directions to stick them to your item of choice. I had a beautiful palomino carousel horse iron on transfer that my mom helped me fuse to a sweatshirt. I wore it until it became a pilly mess, but the iron on transfer stayed intact!
My next interaction with iron on transfers came several years later, when I used one to make a shirt for a Cassie Drake (Uncharted 4) cosplay. It looked great initially, but it quickly began to disintegrate after only a wash or two -- even though I'd followed the directions and even washed the shirt very carefully. After that, my faith in iron on transfers was shaken.
But what if the item didn't need to be washed at all?
I decided to give iron on transfers another shot when I made a doll-sized replica of my favorite Disneyland shirt. I'd been toying with the idea of using fabric paint to add the "standing Mickey" graphic and the Disneyland logo, but very quickly realized that I'd never be able to paint them carefully enough to satisfy my inner perfectionist.
I still wasn't sure what had caused the cosplay shirt graphic to fall apart so quickly -- was it the brand (Jolee), the type of iron on (sparkle), or the fact that it had been washed? I decided to give the Jolee brand one more chance, since I knew their stickers had always been high quality.
I'm glad I did!
The t-shirt graphic turned out even better than I'd hoped! Even now, over ten years later and after several uses by multiple dolls, the shirt has held up perfectly! The graphic hasn't peeled or faded whatsoever! My faith in transfers was restored -- at least when it came to the transparent version of the iron on transfers.
As much as I liked the transparent transfers, I always wished that the color was slightly more vibrant. Then I discovered iron on transfers for dark fabrics. Instead of a transparent background, the images were printed on a white background.
I decided to try using these transfers on blank white t-shirts, and I quickly discovered something...
The iron on transfer material was so stark white, it showed up a little too well even on white t-shirts. Luckily, my other attempts included images that could be cut to avoid showing any white around the edges. Those came out much better. The dark fabric transfers were definitely more vibrant than the transparent ones had been, and had a more realistic, professional look. Still, it was frustrating that I could only use them when I had a square, circle, or otherwise simply-shaped image.
Or could I...?
I decided to try a step further.
I tried adding the t-shirt color in when making transfers for darker colored shirts -- specifically for a recreation of a Miraculous Ladybug shirt I'd designed for a WeLoveFine contest back in 2016. The result was pretty good, but the transfer was definitely darker than the actual shirt.
Today, about a year later, I decided to try again, knowing what I know now. I made the purple of the "shirt" part of the graphic lighter, and when cutting the images out, I cut as close to the image as possible, while still leaving a little border. I think this may be my best attempt yet!
On both the white and the purple shirts, I was able to keep the focus on the graphic itself, white still keeping a little bit of a border to keep from having to cut too close to Spottie Dottie or Sassy. The result looks really professional, IMHO!
I also tried a small iron on transfer I found at Michael's this morning. I had my doubts initially, but I'm super impressed. It's made in such a way that the design can be extremely delicate without having any transparent sections to hold it in place. There seems to be adhesive just on the back of the design sections, and it comes printed on a sheet of plastic that holds everything in position until after it's been ironed on and completely cooled. Pretty neat! I'm not sure how well it will hold up over time, but it seems very sturdy so far!
There's one more design I want to print (with some of my favorite Pokémon), but I think I'll wait until 1. I have a few more designs I want to print, so I'm not wasting a whole sheet of transfer paper, and 2. it's not crazy hot anymore. Summer heat + working with an iron is not the best of ideas. But when you're impatient, what's a little sweat lol...
But yeah, next time, I'll wait until it's a bit cooler. 🥴
