How to remove htv from polyester

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If you have made a mistake, or maybe you just need a shirt for a one-time thing, This is going to be a great vinyl hack for you! Let’s remove heat transfer vinyl from fabric!

I have two different ways to remove heat transfer vinyl! We all make mistakes (how many times do I find the inside of the O not weeded!) Or maybe you made a cute shirt AND THEN realized you spelled something wrong. Or put it on upside down! IT HAPPENS (frequently around my house!) Let me show you how to remedy those HTV mistakes and get you right back to crafting! 

The video is pretty self-explanatory–Plus is super satisfying to watch! But this is the solvent method. Perfect for removing the majority of the vinyl design. 

My daughter wanted to be Mia Hamm for the “Wax Museum” at school. We made her a shirt that she wore one time. I thought this shirt would be the perfect Guinee pig to try the VLR solvent on! 

Here is the magic solution! I bought it off amazon HERE!

You only need a  little bit to remove the vinyl on the shirt so this bottle will last a really long time.

I just followed the instructions on the bottle . Turn it  inside out–saturate the back.

Stretch the fabric to loosen up the adhesion. It takes a minute or two to saturate and then the heat transfer vinyl will start bubbling up. 

It literally just peels right up!

You can see how just by pulling the fabric already releases the vinyl before you even start peeling.

It’s seriously so amazing–I want to start taking vinyl off all of my old shirts! LOL!

There were a couple spots that I had to add some more solvent to just to help it along. The tiny intricate vinyl I would recommend using some tweezers to pull it off as it’s hard to grab!

I did a quick little video about this removing this daisy from my daughter’s sweatshirt (I placed why to hich up on her sweatshirt! You can watch this tik tok video about how to remove heat transfer vinyl.

You are supposed to put it on the underneath- but I put it on the top of the vinyl for video purpose! It was totally cool watching the HTV bubble up! 

Remove HTV- Iron method. 

I have tried the iron method. You place your project against an iron and as it heats up, it loosens up the vinyl and you are able to peel it off. Make sure to use tweezers because the iron and fabric gets HOT! 

This method totally works. But it’s not nearly as quick and easy as the solvent method! If you are under a deadline and need to get fix a problem and don’t have time to wait for Amazon to deliver–it would work in a pinch! It’s also a great method if you have one stray piece of heat transfer vinyl that shouldn’t be there for example: you forgot to weed the inside of the A. Instead of saturating the whole thing and peeling it all up, the iron method make make it easier to just peel up the inside and keeping the rest intact! 

Make sure you are washing those heat transfer vinyl projects correctly! 

Also check out what to do if your heat transfer vinyl peels up! 

If you want access to my full free cut file library, you can sign up here! 

Just in case you were wondering–I love Expressions vinyl heat transfer vinyl! It is the BEST! Lots of amazing colors–subscribe to their emails to get coupon codes!!!