# Are American Apparel Shirts To Soft/Stretchy for Plastisol Transfers?



## Slinky3 (Nov 12, 2012)

Are American Apparel shirts too soft and too stretchy for plastisol transfers?

I have ordered plastisol transfers from 3 companies that constantly get great reviews from these forums.

I followed directions correctly for all 3 companies, I even adjusted times/temps/pressure/etc. 

My heat press is registering the right temp.

And of all three companies I am experiencing the same outcome. The only thing I have not tested is different shirts (which I will be buying some tomorrow to test on).

I follow the directions perfectly, pre-press, press the shirt, take it off the press, and it looks amazing. 
Here is the problem: after washing the shirt you can scratch off the plastisol transfer pretty easily. Not like it completely flakes off or just peels off. Just if you give it a light to medium pressure thumb nail scratch it starts coming off. I know if you scratch something hard enough no matter what it is, you will most likely damage it, but I am not scratching extremely hard. 


So questions are:
1. are plastisol transfers just like this? Not very durable and can be scratched off with a little pressure?
2. is it the AA shirt being to soft/stretchy that the plastisol can not stick to it properly. Or it is not as durable as it would be if it was a different shirt?

-this is so frustrating I am doing everything properly, and even trying different setups for different results, but it is always the same outcome. Only thing i have not tried was the shirts, so due to "process of elimination" I am thinking maybe it is the shirts. if not I have no idea. Any help is greatly appreciated.
thanks


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## proworlded (Oct 3, 2006)

I think that you might find that using a different shirt might solve the problem. Quality transfers, when applied properly, should be extremely difficult to damage.


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## wormil (Jan 7, 2008)

Your post was very detailed but you didn't mention preheating the bottom platen, it should be heated for at least a minute before pressing your first shirt and heated again if you stop for awhile. Are these retail or wholesale AA?

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using T-Shirt Forums


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