How To remove Screen Printing From a Shirt

Looking to remove silkscreen printing from your shirt? This guide will take you through the process.

Doing perfect prints is not easy; it takes lots of practice, and even when you’re experienced at it, it’s inevitable that there will be times when you have unwanted smears on your printing. Though the ink is normally permanent, there are a few tricks you can use to that image off the shirt.

In this short guide, we shall examine the steps you need to take to take to remove a screen print from your shirt or sweatshirt and at the end, we shall go through a few tips to make your work easier.

Steps to removing a screen printing from a shirt

Step I

When you realize that there’s something wrong with the printing, rinse the shirt in cold water immediately. This step will remove any fresh ink on the shirt. Ensure that the water is cold and not warm or hot, as hot water helps set the ink firmly onto the shirt’s fabric.

Step II

After rinsing the shirt or sweatshirt in cold water and ensuring that all the fresh ink is gone, rinse it in warm water.

Step III

Once you’ve removed all the ink that can be removed through rinsing, let the shirt dry completely. At this point, you’ll notice that there might still be some ink printed on your shirt.

Step IV

Place a paper bag on the shirt, with the shiny side lying on top of the part that still has ink.

Step V

Using an iron box without steam, heat the part of the paper bag lying over the part of the shirt that has ink. The iron’s heat will force the ink into the paper bag.

Step VI

Repeat steps iv and v until no more ink can be removed by this strategy.

Step VII

Take some sugar and use it to gently scrub the part of the garment that still has ink. Make sure that you’re only scrubbing gently, as scrubbing violently can damage the shirt’s fabric.

By the time you finish these steps, the entire screen printing should be totally gone. How easy was that?

Now, let’s look at a few tips and warnings associated with removing screen printings.

some other tips to REMOVING A SCREEN PRINTING FROM A t-SHIRT

Heat-setting printed images on the shirt by ironing makes them permanent. However, washing the shirt repeatedly can fade the images.
You can use acetone to remove screen printing ink even after heat-setting the shirt.
You can use high-pressure guns’ spotting fluid to remove screen printings from your shirt.

Warnings:

In case you decide to use chemicals like spotting fluid to reclaim your shirt, ensure that you are in a properly-ventilated area and if your shop doesn’t have good ventilation, do it outdoors. This will protect you from the dangerous components in such chemicals. Acetone is somewhat safe.
Be sure to wear gloves always when using spotting fluid to remove the printing. The chemical can be absorbed by your skin and damage it easily.
Don’t iron or heat the screen-printed ink directly. This will only set it firmly into the fabric.

Final word

As you might have discovered, removing screen printed ink from a shirt is not that hard after all. Be sure to observe the warnings part carefully to ensure that you’re doing it safely both for you and the shirt. Don’t hesitate to drop by anytime and leave a comment on other tricks you might discover on how to remove screen-printed ink effectively.