Last weekend I had a go at making a T-shirt with a band logo on it. The T-shirt was made of black cotton and I used some dark material inkjet transfer paper that I found at an office supply store.
Unfortunately the paper was from a japanese manufacturer and the english instructions were not very clear. they gave a choice of glossy or matte finish by putting a special sheet on top when ironing on. I chose a matte finish and put the piece of smooth card that was in with the rest of the paper over my transfer (the instructions were vague on this point, I guessed that this was the correct one as the packet also included the waxed paper equivalent for gloss finish) went to work with the iron.
I used dry setting, I think full heat on the Iron(Can’t actually remember, I’ll check when I get home) and ironed for about 2 minutes (I think that this was a bit longer than the instructions said). Anyway, the upshot was that I pulled the paper off and the transfer was stuck to it, leaving the shirt virtually untouched.
My wife’s making a bunch of these right now. The “dark shirt” transfers, at least the ones she’s using, are more like stickers than the iron-ons of my youth (which I assume are the “light shirt” transfers, where only the ink is transferred). When you print the image on a “dark shirt” transfer, you don’t want it to be “mirror image”; print it normally, so that you can read the text. Then, you need to trim it, peel the backing off, place it on the shirt peeled side down, and iron. Her transfers recommend using the “cotton” setting, dry, with a sheet of parchment paper between the iron and the iron-on. Iron for maybe a minute and a half, peel the parchment back carefully, and Robert’s your mother’s brother.
I think **Max Torque **might have got it. I’ll check and see if they have peel off backing. Otherwise I’ll try elbows’ thing. I’m think the instructions said ink side up, however. (This shirt was the test, I’ll probably just keep trying on the same shirt for the moment.)
Another hint my wife discovered: if they are the kind with a peel-off backing, they’re a royal pain to peel off. So, when she trims them to size, she leaves a small excess-space square. Then, she tears the paper at the square. It’s much easier to peel the backing from the torn edge than a cut edge. Peel, then cut off the excess square to make it pretty.