A print on a shirt appeals to the eye and makes one stand out from the crowd. However, you might have realized that the image is starting to crack after wearing your printed shirt a few times or even once. Don’t worry; I will explain how you can fix a cracked print on the shirt in this article.
What Is A Print Crack?
A print on your shirt is a print that is printed on your shirt using different methods. For example, print entails an image or other graphics that have been printed or scripted on the shirt.
Process of Fixing A Print Crack On Shirt
To be able to repair the crack on your print shirt, you will need first to have a good understanding of how the actual print on the shirt. That is the case because the method used is going to determine the fixing approach to be used.
In most cases, the three methods commonly used to print a shirt comprise sublimation, thermal transfer, and flex foil.
For sublimation, it entails the print being printed on the shirt through a special printer. The printer, in this case, prints the shirt with the desired color. Therefore, if the fabric fibers of your shirt can be seen on the specific part of the shirt that is painted, the print on the shirt was printed through sublimation, and the image cannot be deleted. However, you can use different ways, such as embroidering with colored threads can be used to fix the print.
In thermal transfer, the printed part of the shirt usually is denser when compared to other parts of the shirt. If that is the case, you can fix the cracked print with iron or cover it with paints.
For the flex foil method, the print’s surface is either going to be smooth or rough and has at least two colors. This print was initially soldered on the shirt with thermoactivated glue.
Even if you can use a hot iron to remove the image, you need to be cautious since a stronger thermoactivated glue was used to place the print on the shirt, and as you embark on removing the print, you could end up damaging the shirt.
3 Methods Of Fixing Cracked Print On Shirt
When fixing a cracked print on a shirt, you can use three different methods. However, it is essential to note that you will either restore the print or remove it when fixing the cracked print.
Method 1: Paint Masking Method
In this method, you will use paint and cover with it the cracked print. You will first mix your paint to have the desired color. After that, to fill up the crack, you should place the paint on the cracks. You will need to make sure that the paint is well set to the surface of the crack so that once it dries up, the crack will be well repaired.
Method 2: Using Hot Iron
Ensure that the shirt with the cracked print is turned over and a board put inside to ensure that the section of the shirt that does not have the paint is protected. On the outside and inside part of the shirt, you are going to put a white paper.
The paper you put must be of reasonable size so that the sheet on the top will be the one to safeguard the shirt from the iron while the sheet on the bottom will stick on the heated print. Make sure that the iron is heated to its maximum point.
You will then iron the parchment when the iron’s steam function is activated. When working on the inside, make sure that you use a solvent to soften the adhesive on the print. After ironing, when using the steam from the iron, swiftly peel off the print with a peeler that can be a penknife or anything else capable of peeling the paint.
When peeling off the print, be careful so that you do not damage the fabric or burn yourself. Once you have deleted the print, wash the shirt and ensure that the print is completely removed.
Method 3: Using alcohol
Take note that the alcohol used in this case is medical alcohol. However, it is important that you gently work on the fabric by pouring the alcohol on the print and then gently peeling the print. It would be best to be careful since you are not; you will likely damage your shirt.
Once you have removed the cracked print on the shirt, you can decide whether to keep the shirt without the print or to take it to your local garment printing retailer so that another print can be placed on the shirt.
What Are Causes Of The Print Crack On A Shirt?
From past experiences, I have realized three significant causes of cracks on prints in a shirt. These three causes are; wear and tear that happens on its own as the shirt is worn for a long time, the print used to print the shirt being of poor quality, and being careless with the shirt.
Wear And Tear Of The Shirt
As is the case with any other thing, fabrics also have a lifetime. The lifetime of the fabric is mainly determined by the conditions that the fabric is exposed to, primarily when the material is used. For example, if you were to wear your printed shirt every day for a month, you would realize that some shirt parts would be worn out.
Poor Print Quality
You might be aware of the adage which states that ‘cheap is expensive’. Thus, if your shirt, which has a print, was cheap, you cannot expect the print to last long. The price you paid for the shirt could be why the image is cracking since if you spent a few dollars, that means that the print and the fabric are most probably cheap, and as a result, you will soon have your print cracking.
Concluding Thoughts
Prints on shirts look good and are also unique. In this post, I have detailed what can be done to restore a cracked print on a shirt. Nevertheless, you might consider buying another print shirt instead of bothering to fix the shirt, as the costs and time needed could be more than just buying another printed shirt.
