T shirt help needed please!
 

I am working on Yet Another Giant T-Shirt Quilt (king-sized, weighs a ton) and most of the shirts are in excellent shape. There is one shirt whose image is peeling up in a few places - the image feels like it was made out of latex-like material and stuck to the shirt, rather than being silk-screened on. I am wondering if there is any permanent way of sticking the little flaps that are peeling up back down. I am concerned that any solvent-based adhesive would melt the image material, and I don't have any similar material to test possible adhesives. Could I maybe use tiny bits of steam-a-seam? How hot do you need to get it to make a permanent bond? Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

Alison

How important is this shirt to the quilt?

If it is a client quilt, I think you would be best to discuss your concerns with them ... and make it very clear that you cannot give them any certainty about how it will stand up. Perhaps the peeling effect is fine with them because of its significance. And too, they may say, just leave it out.

Obviously, they have been around similar T-shirts for their normal use, and know whether that is a bother to them ... and perhaps they like that worn out effect!

As for the steam-a-seam, I'd be hesitant that it would provide any long term satisfactory results.

Thinking way out here .... Wonder .... is there something you could put over the whole thing? like a clear film?

Thanks for the answers!

The quilt is nearly finished and the shirt is already in, and quilted. It was necessary to the balance of the whole thing, and is of significance to the client. The amount that is peeling up is mostly at edges of breaks in the "film", and not at the edges of the whole image. I was extremely careful not to introduce more holes (by quilting over it) than was necessary to stabilize that square. What I had been thinkiing was to take something like Krazy Glue and dab a tiny bit on the tiny edges that have risen. I was hoping someone would reply to this thread with "Oh yes - here is the name of a permanent fabric adhesive designed for gluing down T-shirt images, and it is on sale this week at JoAnn's."

*sigh*

Alison

Sorry, we did not meet your dreams!! :D


Another idea ... what about fray check? I have no idea as to its chemical composition or potential melt-ability to the peeling stuff. I don;t suppose you would be lucky enough to have another peeling t-shirt to experiment with?

Looks like you just might have to pass it back to your client with the cautionary warnings! Surely they will understand, being that the "defect" is in their supplied t-shirt? hope so!!!

You might check with a shop that makes those kind of T shirts and ask if it is possible to repress it on their machine. I have done several T shirt quilts on commission and I kick myself every time I say yes. The last one had mostly those jersey type shirts a lot of teams wear now that are made out of some kind of silky feeling mesh. They were a bear to stabilize. The customer was thrilled and told me she would call me when she had enough shirts to make one for her other son. I hope she never calls back.

If all our dreams were met right away what would be the point of life? (she says philosophically...)

No, the client won't fuss at all, and probably won't even notice! I'm just being anal about it, as I want my handiwork to last a long time. And no, unfortuantely I don't have any shirts with that kind of image on them.

Excellent idea to contact a T-shirt shop. I don't think re-pressing would work (since it is already in the quilt) but they could probably tell me what options I have. And I too always say "never again" after finishing a T-shirt quilt, but this particular person has had me make her three, and is sooooo appreciative of my work that it is very hard to say no! (And she doesn't quibble about the price, which is refreshing.)

Thanks for your help!

Alison