– Hello, everyone. Jennifer Maker here. It's a beautiful day to
show you how to make one of the most popular projects
ever, a layered vinyl T-shirt. I think a lot of people are intimidated by layering iron-on vinyl,
and I totally get that. You don't want to mess up, right? Making a T-shirt with just
one layer can be challenging in and of itself, but when
you factor in two, three, or even four layers of
iron-on vinyl, there are a lot of steps and things to remember. But, layered T-shirts like
this adorable owl shirt are worth figuring out. And that's why I wanted to
put together a super simple and easy to follow video that
breaks down all of the steps so instead of feeling confused you can feel confident when it comes to layering iron-on vinyl. So, you ready? Let's go on over to my craft
table and we will get started. (light music) So, the first thing that
we need need to know is what type of vinyl goes on a T-shirt. It might be obvious to some, but since I want to
get down to basics here and make this as super
beginner friendly as possible, let's start with that.
All right, so here is the
vinyl that you want to use for iron-on projects. Some people just call that iron-on vinyl, but others refer to a as
HTV, which is an abbreviation for heat transfer vinyl. Heat transfer vinyl is a
vinyl that utilizes both heat and pressure to adhere itself to fabric. It can also be used in other material, but for this tutorial
will focus on fabric. Now, what makes iron on vinyl different from regular vinyl is that
it has a clear carrier sheet which you can see here over the top of it. The vinyl is underneath and has a heat-activated
adhesive on the back side. When you use a heat source,
like the Cricut Easy Press or an iron to apply the vinyl,
the carrier sheet protects both the vinyl and your fabric
because it is heat resistant.
There are also different
types of iron-on vinyl. There's standard iron-on vinyl which is also called every
day, which is like this. There's holographic, like this. Glitter, foil, flock, just to name a few. I'm going to show you how
to make a four-layer design with iron-on vinyl so we'll
need a few different colors. We'll apply our design
to a 100% cotton T-shirt. I'll be using my favorite
brand which is Bella Canvas. It's super soft and it has
a really nice quality to it. And we're going to use both
standard everyday iron-on vinyl and a glitter iron-on vinyl to teach you how to do special
things like use glitter. And I'm going to use my Cricut
Maker 3 for this project, but you can use the Original Maker or any of the Explorer series of machines, or even the Cricut Joy. And I'll use my Cricut Easy
Press to apply the design along with a pressing mat, but you could also use a
household iron and a folded towel. Other tools we'll use include
a lint roller, a weeding tool, some heat-resistant tape, and something like parchment
paper, butcher paper, or even a non-stick heat
pressing sheet if you have one.
And one last thing, if you
have one, a Cricut Brightpad also will help quite a bit with weeding. It's pretty awesome. All right, so those are the
tools and materials that we need for our layered, iron-on shirt. Let me show you where to
get this cute owl design as well as a couple of others,
like my holographic flower and then we will started. Step one, get or make a
layered T-shirt design. You can find many layered
designs to make online. To help you learn this technique, I've made three designs
for you to use free. To get them go to Jennifermaker.com/374 and look for libraries
in the red bar at the top and then either click get a password, if you don't yet have one,
or click enter the library. You can find the designs
by searching the page for design number 374 and then click it to download a zip file with SVG files for cutting on a Cricut or
another cutting machine, DXF files and printable
PDFs for cutting by hand.
There are three different
designs to choose from. The flower is three layers and I used Cricut
holographic iron-on vinyl as my top layer to add a fun shimmer. The cat is four layers and requires slightly more precision. Pick this one if you've
layered iron-on vinyl before. The owl is also four layers. This is the version I will
show you in this tutorial. I use Cricut glitter iron-on vinyl as my top layer to add some sparkle. The most important thing
to understand when it comes to specialty vinyls like
holographic, foil, glitter, or flocked iron-on vinyl is to make sure that these specialty
vinyls are your top layer and only your top layer. You can't put any other vinyl
on top of specialty vinyls.
That means nothing goes on
top of glitter, holographic, flocked, or foil iron-on vinyl. You can layer the regular
everyday vinyls on top of each other and put a
specialty vinyl on top of those, but nothing goes on top
of the specialty vinyl. Step two, prepare your
layered T-shirt designs. To begin, you need to
cut your iron-on vinyl for your layered shirt. I'm going to show you how to do that on a Cricut cutting machine. First upload, the SVG cut
file that you want to make to Cricut Design Space. If you're unsure how to do this, please visit Jennifermaker.com/svgs
to learn how to unzip and upload SVG cut files. Here's what my owl design
file looks like uploaded to Cricut design space. Now click on Templates
in the upper left corner, scroll down and choose classic T-shirts or whatever T-shirt matches
the shirt you're going to use. The T-shirt template will
be added to your canvas. In the top menu you'll
see type, size, and color. This refers to the T-shirt template that we just added to the canvas.
The dropdown menus allow
you to adjust the template to match your shirt,
style, size, and color. This will give you a good idea of what your final shirt will look like. My shirt is a unisex shirt in size small, so I selected men short sleeve under type and small under size. You can change the color from white to a color that
matches your T-shirt if you want. I'm going to stick with
white for this tutorial. The template helps with sizing and image placement and
will not be printed or cut. If you look in the layers
panel on the far right, you won't see a layer
for that shirt template so don't worry about that. Keep in mind templates only work in Cricut Design Space for desktop. They don't work on the iPad, iPhone, or any other mobile
device like an Android. Now, click and drag the
design onto the shirt.
I made the owl seven inches tall to fit a small unisex T-shirt, but you can resize the
design to fit your shirt. To change the size, click
and drag the resize handle on the bottom right
corner of the bounding box until you're happy with the size. If you're using this
same color vinyl as me, and you're ready to go
ahead and click Make it. If you'd like to use
another color combination for your design, you can change the colors of each layer to preview what
your design might look like with different variations. Click on a layer in the layers
panel on the right side. Then in the upper menu
at the top of the screen click on the color box next to where it says basic cut under operations and choose a new color. For example, maybe you want
your owl to have blue eyes. Let's give our owl black feathers instead. Click on the bottom
layer in the layers panel and change the color to black.
You could mix and match
colors until you're happy with how it looks. It's important to note that this is for preview purposes only, Cricut doesn't know what
color vinyl you're going to put on your mat. All right, let's change
back to the original colors before we cut. To do this, click on the back arrow or the one that's pointing
to the left in the top menu until things are back to where we started. When you're ready, click
on your Cricut machine. I selected the Maker 3, and then click the green Make it button in the upper right corner.
If you're using a Cricut
Maker 3 or Cricut Explore 3, you'll be asked if you
want to cut your designs without a mat, on a mat, or multiple ways. Select On Mat and click Continue. If you're using smart vinyl, you would want to select without mat. Next, on their prepare screen
toggle the mirror switch to on or green for every layer. Click on each mat to toggle it and then click back to the first mat before moving on to the next step. It's very important that you mirror. And the reason that we
mirror iron-on designs is because the iron-on vinyl comes adhered to a shiny, clear, heat-resistant liner that protects your design during the heat transfer process. Because of this, it's
necessary to position the material liner-side down so your machine can cut your design and leave the liner intact. If you don't mirror each layer, your design will appear
backward on your finished shirt.
So, this is especially important if your design includes text. So, don't forget to mirror. The designs I've included
with this tutorial, technically don't need to be mirrored because there isn't any text
and they would look the same whether they're mirrored or not, but it's really good
practice to always mirror any iron-on projects before you cut them. When you're ready, click Continue. On the make screen, you'll be prompted to select your material settings. For mats one, three, and four, I use Cricut everyday iron-on vinyl. So, when prompted to set
base material for each mat, click on Browse All
Materials and type every into this search window.
And then choose Everyday Iron-On. I always change my cut to more pressure for the best cut and click Done. For mat two, I used glitter iron-on vinyl. So, when prompted to load
material for mat two, click on Browse All
Materials and type glitter in the search window. Then choose Glitter Iron-On and click Done and More Pressure. And in case you forgot
to toggle mirror on, you will be reminded to do
this on this screen as well. It also reminds you to place your iron-on vinyl, shiny
side down on your cutting mat. That's very important. Put it shiny side down. All right. Now it's time to cut our design. We'll use a clean, green,
standard grip machine mat to cut our layers of vinyl.
So as mentioned, place the
shiny side down on the mat. And so, that means you want your dull side of your vinyl facing up. And double check that the fine point blade is loaded into clamp B. Make sure your vinyl color matches the corresponding color you
selected for each machine mat. Then load your mat into your machine and press the flashing
button to begin cutting. Repeat these steps for all four pieces of your iron-on vinyl. Step three, weed your vinyl layers.
It's now time to weed your
iron-on design layers. Weeding means to remove all of the vinyl that we
don't want to transfer to our project. To get started, you want to begin peeling the vinyl away from the edge. You can also use the tip of your weeding tool in the
corner and pull up the edge. Once you've started it,
you can just continue to pull it away from the
carrier sheet, just like this. Your design will stay on the carrier sheet and the part that you
don't want will pull away.
Repeat for all layers of
your iron-on vinyl design. If you're having problems
seeing the cuts of the vinyl as you're weeding, the Cricut bright pad can help you out with that. The light helps reveal the cut lines of the design to make the
weeding process easier. And make sure you remove
the little circles inside the black eyes too. Here's what the four
layers of iron nine vinyl for the owl will look like
once they're cut and weeded. It's a good idea to stack the
layers of your design together before moving on to the next step to be sure you cut everything out and it fits together the way you expect.
Don't worry, this won't hurt your design and you can peel the layers
away when you're ready to move on to step four. All right, step four, how to
layer your vinyl on a shirt. First, if you are using
a Cricut Easy Press, refer to the Cricut Easy
Press Quick Reference Guide which will tell you how
to prepare your material and how to set the Easy Press, how to apply it, and how to
care for your finished shirt. This takes a lot of the
guesswork out of the process. You can find this Easy Press Guide at jennifermaker.com/easypress. You'll want to preheat your Easy Press or iron to the proper temperature. Even though the guide calls for me to set my Easy Press
to 315 degrees Fahrenheit, I'm going to set mine to
300 degrees Fahrenheit and I will explain why in a moment. If you are using an iron
and a cotton T-shirt, set your iron to the cotton setting. If you're something other than cotton, you may need a different
setting for your material.
Place your T-shirt on
a Cricut Easy Press Mat or a folded towel to
protect your work surface. Use a lint roller to clean
away and you stray lint or fuzz or pet hair from
the area of your shirt where you plan to adhere your vinyl. Find the a vertical center of your shirt. The simplest way to do this
is to fold your shirt in half by matching up your sleeves, and then using your
Easy Press or your iron, put a little crease on
the fold, just like this.
Now, when you open your shirt up you'll know exactly where the center is because there's a crease. And then you can just line up the center of the owl with a crease, super easy. Putting a crease in your shirt like this also serves to preheat the material. It won't impact the final design at all. I also chose to put the design in the top half of the shirt, which is generally
where you'll want to put all T-shirt designs. I could eyeball it, but to help me light
it up in the top half, I just folded up the bottom
of the shirt horizontally and aligned it to the top of the T-shirt. I don't need to press a
crease at the center point, but I now know where the
top half of the shirt is. Open your shirt up flat and then center the bottom vinyl layer of your design in place. In the case of this design, the bottom layer is the yellow layer in the full shape of the owl.
It helps to fold the non-sticky sides of your bottom layer in half
vertically against each other. This won't hurt your design. And then you'll open it up and align the creases in the vinyl to the creases in your shirt. You'll place the sticky
side of the carrier sheet against the T-shirt so
the shiny carrier sheet is between the vinyl and
your Easy Press or iron. The next step is to apply it, but don't follow the Cricut heat guide for the temperature or length of time when you're doing a layered,
iron-on shirt like this. And that's because we're
layering our iron-on vinyl and we have to press the bottom layers for less time to avoid
overheating our design when we add subsequent layers.
So, put your iron or Easy
Press on top of the design and press for three seconds. You don't need anything
between your carrier sheet and the iron or Easy Press
for this first layer. Now, there's a chance that three seconds might not
be long enough and that's okay. You can always add extra
heat, just do it in increments and check to see if the vinyl
is adhering to the fabric. Heat times will vary depending on your vinyl and your material
and even where you live and what the temperature
is where you're doing this. If you find that your carrier
sheet doesn't stick well to your T-shirt, you can
use some heat resistant tape to tape it down and keep it in place. Now peel off the carrier
sheet while it's still warm, not hot and not cold, but just warm. And since we didn't heat
the vinyl for very long, this really means that you
peel it off almost right away. Now save the carrier sheet
from this first layer. Take your next layer,
which is the white eyes and position it over the bottom layer.
You'll note that the
bottom layer has shrunk just a little bit. This is totally normal for iron-on vinyl. The more you heat it, the more it shrinks. Once you have the second layer in place, cover it with a piece of
parchment or butcher paper the size of the full owl design. No parchment paper, no
butcher paper, no problem. Just use the carrier sheet that you saved from the first layer to protect the vinyl already adhered to the T-shirt. You could even layer the
carrier sheets if you need to. Just make sure all the vinyl is covered and that it doesn't touch
your Easy Press or your iron. So ,press it all the
way down with your hand and make sure it doesn't want to move.
If it wants to move at all, tape it down with heat resistant tape to keep it perfectly in place. Now, press the second layer, but again, only for or a few seconds. It's very important that
you don't heat it any longer than a few seconds if you can because it'll just be too much heat by the time you get to the final layer. Again, peel the carrier sheet
off while the iron-on vinyl is still warm and then
repeat for the third layer which is the eyes, being
careful to line up the design. And again, cover everything with the carrier sheet or parchment paper. When you get to the final layer, which is our silver glitter iron-on layer, make sure to, again,
cover the entire design with either parchment paper or that first carrier sheet that you saved from the first layer. Make sure all the vinyl is covered.
Since this is the last layer and it's the glitter iron-on layer, we're going to press it for longer and at a higher temperature
to complete our timing. So, increase the temperature of your Easy Press to 315 degrees. And when it's ready, press
this last time for 20 seconds. If you have an SVG design
with a lot of layers, you can add registration marks to help you line up your layers. I used this method to
make my sunflower T-shirt. You can find this tutorial on my blog at jennifermaker.com/layer
iron-on vinyl shirt. Step five, show it off. Here's a close up of my
finished owl T-shirt. Isn't it cute? You can follow the same basic steps to make the other two
layer designs included in this tutorial. Layering vinyl does take
some practice and patience, but the end result is definitely worth it. I really love how our shirts turned out.
They are super cute. Layering with different
types of iron-on vinyl, HTV, adds such a fun touch to shirts. I love it. So, now that you know how
to layer iron-on vinyl and all of my tips and tricks, I hope you will feel more confident in giving this technique a try. And once you feel more comfortable, you can use these steps to make all sorts of fun, layered things. For example, I love to decorate my skirts with layered iron-on vinyl.
This is my Cricut skirt. Can you see the vinyl on it? So now, if you have any questions about layering iron-on vinyl, let me know, leave your question below this video or ask over at our Cricut crafters group at Jennifermaker.com/Cricutcrafters. By the way, also check out my Cricut iron-on T-shirt tutorial for beginners here. That's just one layer and
that's really awesome.
And my faster and easier
DIY shirts video here. And that's it for today. Until next time, this is
Jennifer Maker reminding you to craft a life you love. (light music).