In Love With HTV!

Making a shirt using HTV vinyl is super easy and fun. One of the best things about this is you don't necessarily have to have a heat press. You can use a iron, Cricut heat press or a small commercial type heat press. I'll be using a small commercial type heat press for this tutorial. Let's craft!!

Things you'll need to get started:

Cricut or any other design cutting machine

HTV vinyl/ iron on vinyl

scissors

weeding tool

measure tape/ruler

wax paper

Step 1

Create your design in your design space. Don't forget to mirror the image before cutting.

Step 2

Once you have your design cut (mirror image) and removed from your cutting machine it's time to get it ready to weed. I find it easier to cut the access vinyl around design. You can use the access vinyl for another design or for fixes.

Step 3

Weed out the area in your design with your weeding tool. Then I use wax paper to cover so it won't stick to anything as I am carrying it to where I press my projects. Really comes in handy when you are doing multiple layers or projects.

Step 4

get press ready to make some magic. On the heat press I am using I set my temperature to 350 and 40 psi for pressure. I am working on a super old heat press and I find this to work perfect for my projects. If you are using the Cricut press, you can set temp to 350 as well.

Step 5

When your heat press is ready you will need to press shirt to release any moisture before starting for 5 seconds. To help center design if working with a small commercial type heat press you can fold shirt before pressing to create a crease line to use as guide. Some use a ruler that is made for that, I personally like to be frugal so I don't own one.

Step 6

Now for the fun part! I start my design at 3" from the bottom collar. Depending on how large your design you may start at 2". I use a measuring tape to make sure I am accurate on my starting point.

Step 7

Place design on shirt and press for 10-15 seconds. What works perfect for me is splitting up the time. I press for 5-6 seconds then I remove my backing from vinyl slowly and press for additional 5-6 seconds. You want to remove backing slowly because depending on type of HTV using it may have not adhered to shirt properly. In that case you can just put the backing back down and press again. Beware of your cold and hot peels. If its a cold peel and you try removing the backing the design will not stick to shirt.

I hope you enjoyed our tutorial!!