Learn How Easy It Is to Create Beautiful Shirts With Multiple Colors
Since sublimation has come out, people don’t seem to use iron-on as much anymore. I, however, still enjoy creating beautiful things with it. Like the unicorn and dinosaur shirts I made for a couple of my grandbabies. Of course, now I have to go get some more vinyl so I can make more for the rest of the grandbabies.
Working with iron-on takes patience and practice, because you need to know what you are working with. Some iron-on vinyls have limitations. Take glitter, foil, and holographic vinyl for example. You can’t put any vinyl on top of them. And different vinyls have different heat and time settings. Once you get the hang of it though, it’s really simple.
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Materials Needed To Complete The Project
Cricut
Iron-On Vinyl
Cricut Light Bright
Cricut Weeding Tool
Cricut Brayer Tool
Heat Press
T-Shirts
Parchment or Butcher Paper
Heat Resistence Tape
Material
Material
Material
Design #011 – My free T-Shirt Design SVG files (available in The Vault (my free resource library) — get the password by filling out the form at the bottom of this page)
If You would like to watch the tutorial, you can view it on my YouTube Channel!
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How to Use Multiple Colors and Types of Iron-On Vinyl
Step 1: Get My T-Shirt Design SVG File
To get the design, go to Victori’s Creations’ Vault. Enter the password to access The Vault (the password can be found in each email I send out). Look for design #011 – T-Shirt Design SVG file and download it to your device.
Step 2: Prep Your T-Shirt Design SVG File
The first thing you need to do is upload your design to Cricut design space. Click upload, look for your design in your files, and add your design to your canvas. Make sure your words are grouped together so they’ll be cut as a word and not as individual letters.. Click templates in the top left-hand corner, and locate classic T-shirts template and click it. Once you select the template you will have the opportunity to choose the type of T-shirt and the size of the T-shirt. For this project, we will select the kids T-shirt and the size of the shirt.
Select your design by dragging your mouse across the whole image. Resize your image based on the area of the T-shirt you would like to put your vinyl. Once you have it exactly where you want it you can always double check the measurements by taking your ruler and measuring out the actual T-shirt. Make sure your design is not bigger than your actual T-shirt.
Once you have your design sized correctly, it’s time to select colors for your design (make sure your colors are not the same as your shirt). Remember your Cricut machine doesn’t know what colors you are actually putting on your mat, so this is more for your benefit.
On a side note…
When you are creating the ‘Sparkle Like a Unicorn’ design, you will want to make sure that you slice the ribbon with the words ‘like a’ and ‘unicorn’ with the image of the unicorn, so you are cutting the words out of the ribbon and out of the unicorn and not cutting those words to place on top of them. Unless of course you would like to have those words cut out in a different color or in white and pressed on top of the ribbon and the unicorn.
Before you move on, click save, give your project a name, and then click save again. I always try to save my projects before I click make it, so if anything goes wrong my project is saved.
Step 3: Cut Your Iron-On Vinyl
Now that your project is saved, click make it, and make sure your items are as they should be on the mats. Toggle the mirror to the on position on all mats. This is a very important step because you’re using words. If you’re only using images it’s not as important, but it is still important. Click continue. Make sure your correct machine is selected, and select the material you are using. Because my mats will be using two types of iron on vinyl I will not select the remember materials setting. If you are using the same type of iron on, you can select the remember material setting and you don’t have to change the setting when you change your mats. I like to select the more pressure for a better cut.
Place your vinyl on your mat shiny side down. You can use a brayer to smooth out your vinyl, making sure you don’t have any air bubbles and making sure your mat has a good grip on your vinyl. Make sure you have your fine point blade in Clamp B and make sure you check the blade for any debris. Load your material, click the up and down arrow on your machine, then click the Cricut C. Repeat this process for all mats.
Step 4: Weed Your Iron-On Vinyl
To weed your vinyl, you need to first remove it from the mat by turning your mat upside down and slowly curling the mat away from the vinyl, keeping your vinyl as flat as possible. Make sure you place your protective film over your mats before storing them, so they do not get messed up. This extends the life of your mats. Repeat this process for all mats.
If you have difficulty with seeing the lines of what you should be weeding out, you can use your Cricut Light Brite to help you. Use your Cricut weeding tool. I like to start with the insides of items like the letters. Make sure that you are careful when weeding out your design. While this is easy to do, it is also very easy to rip your vinyl. Remember to double check your letters to make sure you have it completely weeded out. Once you have ironed it on, it’s there.
Step 5: Apply Your Design to Your T-Shirt
Turn your heat press on. I like to follow Cricut’s heat press guide to know what to set my heat press. Go to cricket.com/heatguide and select the heat press you are using. I’m using my T-shirts or clam heat press, but I am going to choose Cricut’s Auto Press, because it is similar. According to Cricut’s heat press, I need to preheat my shirt for five seconds, my temperature needs to be at 330, and I need to press for 30 seconds. Because I am doing layers, I will press the first layer for 20 seconds and the second layer for 30 seconds.
Prep Your Shirt
If you are using your Cricut Easy Press, place your T-shirt on your mat or a folded towel to protect your work surface. If you have a lint roller, run it across your T-shirt where you plan to adhere your vinyl to remove any dust, pet hair, or dirt that may be present.
Fold your shirt in half to find the vertical center of your shirt. Using your iron or your press, put a little crease on the fold to mark the center. This will also help remove the moisture from the shirt. Now when you open your shirt you will know exactly where your center is because of the crease. Now line up the first layer with the crease by folding your layer in half vertically on the non sticky side, and putting a crease at the top and the bottom. Lay your first layer to match the creases with the shiny side up.
Heat and Time Settings
Now it’s time to apply the iron-on to the shirt, but don’t follow the heat press guide for the temperature or length of time when doing a layered iron-on project. This is because we are pressing layers and need to press the bottom layers for less time to avoid overheating our design when we add more layers. We are going to drop our temperature by 15° making it 275 and we’re going to press for 20 seconds at a time. Place your Teflon or butcher paper over your image and press for 20 seconds. For the last layer you’re going to increase the time back to 40 seconds. Make sure that your entire image is covered either with Teflon paper, butcher paper, or even the carrier sheet from the previous from the first layer.
Share Your Project!
I would love to see your iron-on t-shirt project and any other fun little projects you were inspired to do! If you make one, please share a photo on our Facebook page or tag me on social media with #victoriscreations.
Get My T-Shirt Design SVG File