Grab your Cricut machine and follow along with the easy step-by-step tutorial below. Unfold the shirt and place down your design, ensuring the plastic side is facing up and the design is readable. After finalizing your design and placement for the names, you’ll want to add the nose. Look online for vinyl, or visit your local craft store to get a better idea of what the vinyl will truly look like. I like to do a little bit … Think of weeding your design much like weeding a garden! The last thing you want is the heat transfer vinyl to peel and come away. If you really can’t stand to see another ad again, then please consider supporting our work with a contribution to wikiHow. Highlight the entire design and select attach. If you are transferring many heat vinyls, are having trouble ironing them on evenly, or need to ensure the vinyl will maintain through washes, consider investing in a heat press. You can also use a paper puncher or a die-cut machine to make fast shapes. I hope you found this tutorial helpful! Choose bold, easy to read fonts when adding letters to your design. Shirt or any fabric you’ll be putting it on! One of the most important steps when creating a design using heat transfer vinyl is to mirror the image. Are you confused about how this product works? HTV stands for Heat Transfer Vinyl, and is also known as Heat Press Vinyl (HPV) or T-Shirt Vinyl, which is usually either a polyurethane (PU) or poly vinyl chloride (PVC) material.These come in standard, block colours, along with speciality (e.g. Heat Press Vinyl Supplies: Something for every taste. Color coding your design helps to prevent mistakes while cutting, and instructs the program to cut items of the same color on the same mat. If the vinyl peels up with backing: Press backing down, lay down cover sheet, and press with iron 3-4 more seconds. However, there are certain criteria to follow if you truly want your vinyl to last. Nicole holds a Certificate in Interior Design from the New York Institute of Art and Design. Finally, double check the sizing of the design as a whole, and click make it. Siser EasyWeed wants 305°F/150°C, so we’ll be using an iron set to medium-high, between the settings for Cotton and Wool. Nicole Bolin. For tips on how to care for your vinyl transfer, keep reading! Carefully pull back the plastic. Nicole Bolin is a Crafting Specialist and the CEO of Stencil, a DIY Craft Studio in Phoenix, Arizona. You may also want to test out HTV vinyl on an inexpensive piece first until you get the hang of it. Expert Interview. My width was 8 inches, so I set it to be slightly smaller at 7.9 inches. Press down on your iron and apply pressure to each part of the design for around 10-20 seconds. Required fields are marked *. To prepare your mat for cutting, place your heat transfer vinyl shinny side down on your mat. Open your shirt up flat, preheat your t-shirt (if you didn't crease it with heat already), then center the BOTTOM LAYER of your design in place. Next, set the width of the image to the widest point of the design. The attach tool is great because it allows you to cut your design exactly as shown on your screen. Read on to hear what I have learned along the way on Heat Transfer Vinyl, but first, let me make sure you know about my Silhouette 101 series! Keep reading our tutorial on how to use heat transfer vinyl as it is easy and you are going to love using this product. To apply heat transfer vinyl, start by heating a clothes iron to the temperature indicated on the vinyl’s packaging. Heat Transfer vinyl / Iron On – Expressions Vinyl has a great selection or you can find some on Amazon or a craft store. Just use an iron instead, and use plenty of pressure when you're ironing it onto the fabric. Then I set my Cricut machine cut dial to custom. Once your design is flipped, click continue. Nicole holds a BS in Animal Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and spent 15 years in the scientific field before switching careers. Nicole specializes in interior design and various craft and DIY projects. Individual text boxes allow us to easily change the fonts, sizes and spacing of each word, independently. Step by Step instructions on how to use heat transfer to create t-shirts and custom projects with tips and tricks for perfect application. If you have any questions regarding heat transfer vinyl, please leave them in the comments below. “Can the shirts I make be washed? Peel up plastic backing from vinyl. Heat transfer vinyl (or HTV) is the same thing as iron-on vinyl. Beginners tips and tricks for how to use heat transfer vinyl and Cricut Iron-on vinyl! She opened Stencil in 2017 to teach others to create DIY projects that fit their home and lifestyle. This article was co-authored by Nicole Bolin. It takes time and effort to create a design, cut and weed the vinyl, and then press it onto a tee. Once the iron is hot and ready for use, put in on your design, and exert firm pressure. Crafts & DIY Specialist. Heat transfer vinyl are normally very durable and most of the time, a good quality vinyl will last longer than the t-shirt itself. Both use heat to activate an adhesive on the back of vinyl to make it stick to shirts, hats, and so much more. After your design is placed perfectly on your shirt, grab your Teflon sheet and place it over the design. For tips on how to care for your vinyl transfer, keep reading! I started out by removing the largest pieces surround the cut design. Heat transfer vinyl is called a couple different names. 9 September 2020. We know ads can be annoying, but they’re what allow us to make all of wikiHow available for free. If you want to make sure your design is centered before applying the heat transfer vinyl, fold your fabric in half, and iron over the fold to create a crease in your fabric. Like I mentioned above, the best heat transfer vinyl for t-shirts is Siser EasyWeed. Hey, crafters! Your email address will not be published. How to Use Heat Transfer Vinyl. Heat transfer vinyls, also known as T-shirt vinyls, or iron-on vinyls, are easy and fun ways to put a personalized design on fabrics. It’s just really fun to me to make matching shirts … Make sure you purchase a vinyl compatible with the fabric you want to use. There are many colors and patterns to choose from. When pressing a design on a shirt, one thing that must be 100% accurate is that the design is centered. My favorite type of vinyl to work with is heat transfer vinyl, and just this past year I’ve really put all my stash to use.. I’ve used HTV on wood ornaments, put HTV on a polyester swim bag, and made Monsters INC inspired trick or treat bags!. After weeding your design, it’s time to iron it onto your shirt. Place a Teflon Sheet on top of your t-shirt. Carefully peel away the clear transfer sheet from the vinyl while it is still warm. Ironing the Vinyl Transfer Most vinyl transfers require a very hot iron setting to adhere the vinyl, so be sure to read the heat transfer vinyl’s instructions before ironing. You want it to last as long as possible. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. When you place the vinyl onto the fabric just before ironing, match up the center crease of the vinyl with that of the fabric. Remember, if you’d like to use my design as a starting point, you can always adjust the the colors and sizing once opened in Cricut Design Space. Be careful not to let the logo get too far to the left (as if wearing the shirt) as it may end up in the armpit area. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpyEjy7TA5k, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KuSiuGwL88, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61jSgAL7Q8w, consider supporting our work with a contribution to wikiHow. After the majority of the unwanted vinyl was removed, I used my Cricut weeding tool to carefully pull out the remaining unwanted pieces of the design. Please help us continue to provide you with our trusted how-to guides and videos for free by whitelisting wikiHow on your ad blocker. Then, fold your vinyl in half and make a crease with your fingers. Set your iron or heat press to the temperature listed in the directions included with your HTV. Fabric, shiny side up EasyPress on top of the most important steps when creating a design your... Own patriotic t-shirt using Craftables patterned heat transfer vinyl is easy ( and fun ) to make sure purchase... 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