TIL you can fix faded screen printing with a heat press and parchment paper

I had this old hoodie from a show in Austin, the print was all cracked and peeling after maybe 2 years. I was about to toss it but figured I'd try laying parchment paper over it and hitting it with my heat press at 300 degrees for 15 seconds. The heat reactivated the adhesive and smoothed out most of the cracks, now it looks almost new. Has anyone else tried this or got a better trick for reviving old prints?

2 comments

2 Comments

ross.jason7d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly I gotta push back a little on the 250 thing. In my experience 300 is actually the sweet spot for most of the older prints that are already cracked and peeling. If you're trying to fix something that's already damaged going too low just won't reactivate the adhesive enough to actually bond back down. I learned this the hard way trying to save a Dead shirt at 250 and it barely did anything so the next one I went up to 300 and it came out way better. The real trick is parchment paper and a quick test on the inside hem first before you commit to the whole thing. And yeah vinyl heat transfers from shows are a whole different animal but even those respond better to a hotter press in my book.

nancy_owens7d ago

300 is a little too high for most prints honestly. You're probably fine on that particular hoodie but if it's a newer plastisol based screen print you can actually melt the plastic and make it look worse if it gets too hot. I usually stick to 250 for about 10 seconds and check it first before doing the whole thing lol. Also make sure you're using a dry parchment paper not the wax kind cause that'll leave a weird residue on your design and ruin it. The cracked prints from shows are usually cheaper vinyl heat transfers too which react differently than actual screen prints so your mileage is gonna vary a lot depending on the print method. I've had mixed results with the heat press trick on stuff from small local bands versus bigger tour merch companies.