I have been doing some testing of new Dollar Tree craft supplies lately, and I have had some really great successes. Well, you know what that means. I was due for a fail. I tested out iridescent iron-on patches from the dollar store, and the process was a roller coaster of emotions!
DO DOLLAR STORE IRON-ON PATCHES WORK?
DOLLAR STORE IRON-ON PATCHES
I found these two-packs of iridescent patches in the craft section of my local Dollar Tree. They stocked these fun iridescent blue patches and sparkly pink patches as well.
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- Crafter’s Square Iridescent Patches
- Ripped jeans
- EasyPress or iron
- Pressing cloth
- Optional: Scissors
- Optional: Paper trimmer
- Optional: Cricut Explore 3
- Optional: Strong Grip mat
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HOW CAN YOU CUT DOLLAR STORE IRIDESCENT PATCHES?
The packaging for these iron-on patches states that you can cut them to size before use. They cut very easily with craft scissors, and they cut just fine with my paper trimmer as well. The adhesive didn’t seem to rub off onto the blades at all.
Those early successes got me excited that maybe I would be able to cut more intricate designs with my Cricut. I applied one of the patches to a Strong Grip mat and loaded it into my Cricut Explore 3.
Before breaking out any fancy blades, I wanted to see if I could cut the patch with the fine-point blade that comes with your Cricut machine. I chose a star shape in Cricut Design Space, chose Faux Leather (Paper Thin) from the materials menu, and crossed my fingers.
It cut perfectly! The blade didn’t catch at all and gave me a completely clean cut in one pass. The excess iron-on patch material weeded beautifully away from the design. I was so excited at all the possibilities that were open to me now that I knew I could cut the patches with my Cricut.
Hang on to that excitement, friends, because things only go down from here.
HOW DO YOU APPLY DOLLAR STORE PATCHES?
Since these are iron-on patches, I first decided to use one to patch up a rip in a pair of old denim. As it turned out, this was an ambitious idea.
The back of the package of iridescent patches has the following instructions:
- Be sure garment fiber content can withstand heat setting required for application. Recommend 100% cotton.
- Wash garment before applying fabric.
- Preheat iron on dry cotton setting.
- Cut fabric to desired size and shape.
- Preheat garment area, position fabric (shiny side down).
- Place pressing cloth over fabric and press with iron for 1 minute.
- Turn garment inside out and press with iron for 1 minute.
- Allow fabric to cool and check bond. Repeat steps if necessary.
- Machine wash warm/dry medium heat.
I used my EasyPress set to 400 degrees (the equivalent of the cotton setting on a household iron) and pressed the patch over the rip for 1 minute. I will admit to you that I forgot to use a pressing cloth for this test. You can see the result was that the patch shrunk right up and pulled away from the denim. Determined to fix my mistake, I tried again.
The star-shaped patch I cut with my Cricut ironed on much more easily, but the edges still seemed a bit dodgy.
I was concerned that maybe having my EasyPress set to 400 was too much heat. I lowered the temp to 365 and pressed another patch (the rectangular shape above) onto the jeans. I figured these three tests would give me a pretty good sense of how the iron-on patches work.
ARE THE DOLLAR STORE PATCHES DURABLE?
Unfortunately, the short answer to this question is a big, fat no. The first test began to pull up almost immediately after it cooled down.
My second test only needed the slightest amount of prodding with my finger before it began to come up at the edges.
Initially, I was hopeful for the patch that I applied at the lower heat setting, but as soon as I stretched the denim even a little, the patch peeled right off. I didn’t even attempt to launder the jeans because I knew there was no chance the patches would make it through the washer, let alone the dryer.
ARE THE IRON-ON PATCHES WORTH BUYING?
I cannot recommend these patches based on my experience with them. I am so bummed about that since I was so excited about how beautifully they cut with a Cricut machine. I was anticipating all kinds of fun projects with this iridescent iron-on material too!
It is altogether possible that my project failures were a result of user error. Maybe the patches would work better with a household iron instead of my EasyPress. Maybe I messed up the process somewhere else along the line. But I just have to take the L with my trials.
I wasn’t able to find the iron-on patches on the Dollar Tree website when I looked for them, so it’s possible they have realized they aren’t that great of a product too. Have you tried these patches? Did you have better success than I did?
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DO DOLLAR STORE IRON-ON TRANSFERS WORK?
