Heat transfer Vinyl is a cool way to get your desired designs printed on your t-shirts and more. You can cut any design with heat transfer vinyl, and you can print logos, monograms, party designs and more on different types of cloth.
You can use them for your pillows, bags, shirts, or any cloth material that can be ironed. Here is a step-by-step beginner’s guide to using heat transfer vinyl.
1. Creating a design
First, you want to create cool or beautiful designs according to where you want your designs transferred. On designing software, be free to create cool and quirky designs. You can make some with the help of images, or you can create a new pattern. When you finish your design, you must importantly flip it to give it a mirror image. When you iron the image, the design automatically gets flipped on, and you will come out facing outwards if you flip the image before you cut it.
2. Cutting the heat transfer
The printable heat transfer vinyl must be cut carefully. You can cut your design in two ways. You can cut the design with or without the cutting mat. If your design is quite small, it will fit entirely on the cutting mat, making it easier for you to work on. There will be fewer margins left for errors. If your designs are large, you can cut the heat transfer vinyl directly from the roll without using the cutting mat.
3. Trimming out the heat transfer
Once you have cut out your design, you can weed out the excessive designs on the heat transfer vinyl, like the designs around the edges and corners. In this step, you can also peel out any parts of the design that you do not want to get ironed on the cloth. You can use a safety pin for this, or you can also use a weeding tool for it. Once you are done with it, you are only left with the parts of the design that you want to get ironed.
4. Arrange your design
Take out the weeded pieces from the designs and place them clear backing side up on your cloth to get an alignment, just as you wish. As the clear backing is facing upwards, your design will show up just as it is when it will get finished. You do not need to be looking at a mirror image now. Your cuts need to be precise so that none of the pieces come underneath one another and is placed closely on the sides of one another.
5. Ironing your design
Lastly, iron your printable heat transfer vinyl design on the cloth. Use a towel between the heat transfer and the iron if it works well. You can also use parchment paper according to your convenience. Place the design on the cloth and carefully iron it. Iron it in intervals of 10-40 seconds, depending on the type of heat transfer. After the design gets transferred, let it cool down for 30-40 seconds.