# canvas tote bags discolored by heat



## tmawicke (Sep 11, 2012)

Can I use parchment paper instead of teflon to get the wrinkles out of my canvas tote bags? I threw my teflon paper away because it was leaving brown marks on anything I used it with. I'm embroidering on canvas tote bags. They often come wrinkled and I've found that no matter how low the heat setting, they get discolored. I've ruined a few bags trying to get the wrinkles out by either a low iron setting or misting and drying in the dryer. I'm not sure what else I can do at this point to remove the wrinkles. Any ideas?


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## GHEENEE1 (Jan 8, 2007)

Parchment paper will work.


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## tmawicke (Sep 11, 2012)

I saw one of your older posts that you buy totes from bestblanks.com. So it sounds like my totes (Bag Edge) from Alphashirt have something called "sizing" on them and that is what's making the scorch marks? And best blanks don't have that? 
I have quite a few totes... I'll try the parchment paper with a regular iron instead of the heat press until I manage to sell all of them and then I'll buy from bestblanks.

Thanks


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## GordonM (May 21, 2012)

Your teflon shouldn't have been discoloring the fabric. If that were something that teflon regularly did, it would mean it's giving off some gas or material. As it is the same type of teflon sheet used in food service and home cooking, we'd be ingesting something we shouldn't!

If you can retrieve your teflon, and give it a good cleaning with 91% isopropyl alcohol. Parchment is okay, but some kinds of inkjet transfers just come out better with teflon on the top.

Browning in cotton can be caused by:

1. Sizing, as you noted. Also stain inhibitors. These usually wash out.

2. Too much heat. Cotton is actually not at all a good fabric for heat pressing, because it starts degrading at just 78 degrees F. It can be ironed at 300-350 degrees F for a few seconds, but we're really pushing it to its limits when he put it under a heat press for a minute at 350+.

If you can get out most or all of the browning by spritzing white vinegar on the fabric then it's probably heat related.

We get in polyester bags that not only are wrinkled, but have a big crease down the center from being folded, and require overall pre-shrinking. We don't use the press for this. They're all hand-ironed, which is a PITA. 

The fact that you've tried lowering the ironing temp and you still get the discoloration says to me these particular totes aren't made for heat press decoration.


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## tmawicke (Sep 11, 2012)

Thank you! That was extremely helpful . I'm only embroidering at the moment but I do have all the equipment and supplies for heat transfers (just haven't had much luck getting a clean transfer). I will try again with your helpful advice.


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