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How to Use Iron-on Vinyl to make custom clothes and other fabric projects - Rae Gun Ramblings #diy #cricut #craft

How to use iron on vinyl tutorial

Step by step tutorial on how to cut out and iron on vinyl using a Cricut Machine.

Instructions

  • For iron-on vinyl you want to get the mirror image. It’s not important unless you have text or an image you need to face a certain direction. Let me tell you it’s not a matter of if but when you go to cut and you’ve forgotten to flip your images so I highly recommend just getting into the habit of that whenever you have an iron-on vinyl project whether it’s necessary or not. See the little arrow buttons that face eachother at the top? Just click on that and it will invert it for you. Or if you’re braving cutting something manually invert the image before you print/trace it to use as your guide.
  • Cut your vinyl to fit your mat. Then position it PLASTIC SIDE DOWN and vinyl side up. There is a layer of plastic that will be peeled away. It’s the shinny side. So again that’s shiny side down.
  • You want to do something called a “kiss cut” it will make everything loads easier especially if you have lots of small pieces like words or designs. The kiss cut should cut the top layer (the vinyl) while leaving the bottom layer (the plastic) more or less in tack. That way you can just peel off the negative space and use the plastic to manuver. Sure you can take the individual pieces if it cuts it all the way through but the kiss cut makes things WAY easier. On both of my machine the proper setting for this is Depth 3. Pressure 2, and Speed 4. The just send it to cut.
  • Once you unload your cutting mat peel away an of the excess vinyl. This step is called weeding. I like to use my fingers first and start from one corner and slowly pull and get as many of the big pieces off at once.
  • Then I like to go back with my little poker tool (Cricut has a whole tool kit that is super great and makes all this stuff much easier). Then I remove all the little pieces or the pieces attached to little details like the middle of letters or right by the antennae.
  • If you did the kiss cut you should have a sheet of plastic with some pieces of vinyl on it. If it’s the perfect layout just leave it like that. If you want to spread out your images you can cut them apart. Then just position them on your fabric PLASTIC SIDE UP this time.
  • With a hot iron (mine is a little down from cotton so not the max hottest setting) Iron through the plastic. Hold for a few seconds still and then wiggle and them move positions until you’ve hit all the vinyl. Gently pull on an edge if the vinyl comes up with it iron some more. This step takes the longest especially if you have a large image.
  • Next I like to flip it over and iron a little from the back. Once you are sure the vinyl is securely attached pull away the plastic. Feel around the vinyl especially at the edges to see if there are any spots that need reinforcement.
  • I don’t always do this step but I find it helpful especially on larger projects where my patience might have me speeding through the last few steps but I place a clean thin piece of fabric down and iron through the fabric for one last bit of attaching.
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