# pressing rhinestones with a regular iron



## silverbolt (Aug 11, 2005)

I have been using a heat press to press rhinestone transfers for a while now, but I have some customers who would like to press the transfer themselves. I have my transfers shipped to me and then I press them on the garments. Can you use any household iron to press rhinestone transfers? I have heard you can use a regular iron, but I haven't tried it yet because I am not quite sure how to do it. Any tips would be great!
Best,
Silverbolt


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## irish (Dec 13, 2008)

I used to use a household iron, but the steam holes made it difficult to keep the heat even. I then found an iron with no steam holes and it did work better. 

Personally I found that I got uneven results with an iron. Some stones / metals would stay forever and some would come off after a few washings. Of course that could all be my technique too.


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## Kim_t2_au (May 24, 2010)

Nah, Irish, it's not your technique. I had the same trouble with a steam iron. Using my grandmothers' heavy dry iron was a huge improvement. I found the best thing with using an iron was to press down with the iron for about 15 seconds, allow to cool for 7 or 8 seconds and reapply the iron for another 15 seconds or so and then turn the garment inside out and press the iron down on the inside of the design for about 15 seconds.

Kim


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## SandyMcC (Jul 23, 2009)

I've used my home iron numerous times and had no problems at all... even with the steam holes being present. I remove the padding from my ironing board, however, so that the surface will be much firmer. I removed the water from the iron, turn off the steam setting, put the temperature on Cotton. Then I pressed down firmly and counted out 15 seconds. I've washed and dried my first shirt at least 12 times and haven't had a single stone fall off. But after reading about inverting shirts and giving them a second pressing, I've since added that to my routine, just to make sure.


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