I am so excited to share my love of Heat-Transfer vinyl with you! There's so much good about it; it doesnt fade and bleed like other iron-on transfers, it comes in so many colors; even metallics (I can't get enough silver and gold!) which is a big deal to me! It looks sharp and professional, and is such an easy hack to do right at home. I love the simple, clean crispy look of it and its SO inexpensive! I paid about $30 for 4 yards (a yard each of four different colors) on Amazon last winter and I still have about 3/4 of it left; It lasts a long time!! So I'm going to show you how it's done with the professional-grade vinyl, with NO professional equipment or tools!
You'll Need:
- Heat Transfer Vinyl (duh): I use the brand name "Siser Easy-Weed" because like the name implies it's very easy to work with and comes out so soft with a nice little stretch to it!
- Teflon Sheet (This should come with your HTV order but double-check to be sure!)
- Exacto Knife
- an Iron
- (optional) A printer
For this tutorial I'm going to make the same NBYBOY graphic Teddie's wearing on his tank here, so I'll be using black and silver HTV.
Start by printing (or drawing) your desired graphic on plain ol' paper. If it's orientation-sensitive, make sure you print it "mirrored". We're going to use this is a stencil.
Take a look at your HTV. There is a shiny side and a dull side. The shiny side is the sticky plastic layer that will be peeled off in the end, and the dull side is your vinyl.
Tape your paper-graphic to the dull side of your HTV. Cut your paper pieces a bit smaller than your HTV pieces so you have a surface to tape your paper to. Be generous with your tape (you don't want it moving around!) and make sure it's on a flat surface!
Now it's time for the exacto-knife! Trace along the outlines of your graphic cutting right through the paper and the vinyl, but not through the shiny-side plastic layer (though its not the end of the world if you accidentally do so!) This might sound difficult, but you quickly get a feel for it!
If you have something like the letter B where there are "holes" in it, be sure to cut those out first; if you cut the outside part first, you won't have the paper to trace the inside lines!
Once you've completely traced/cut your graphic you can take the remaining paper off (tape too!) and start what we call "weeding"; peeling away the excess vinyl to leave only your beautiful graphic. The key to this is to go slow and have patience if you're doing a complicated graphic.
I like to make a few extra slices from cut-lines to the edge, so I can peel away smaller amounts at a time. ( It's a little hard to see, I know!)
I like to use a pin to help lift and peel the excess vinyl and start at the inside of corners.
So keep on weeding away until you have nothing left but your nice clean graphic!
The backside that you just worked with will be nice and sticky for you to place on your desired garment. When this material is used commercially, they use a cutting-machine and a massive industrial heat-press, but we're going to use our household iron. The HTV comes with Pressure and Time instructions for "pressing" and you're just going to try to emulate it with your iron and own weight!
So arrange your graphic(s) how and where you'd like them to be, and lay your teflon sheet over it. I ironed this on with a little bit of lean, holding in place for about 20sec until I've covered the whole graphic.
Now you can peel away your plastic while its still warm for a matte finish, or let it cool a bit for a shinier graphic. I choose shiny!
Voila!!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and give heat-transfer vinyl a chance, you'll love it!
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