Today, we're going to show you how to cut heat-transfer vinyl with Cricut machines. One of the great things about heat-transfer vinyl is that you can apply it to lots of different fabrics, such as shirts, cushions, t-shirts and bags.
Whether you have a Cricut Maker, Cricut Explore Air or Cricut Joy, here's how to cut your first HTV design with Cricut:
Select your design
When you're ready to cut a design out of heat-transfer vinyl, open the Cricut Design Space software and get your design ready. In this example, we downloaded a design from our pack of 50 Free Designs for Cricut that you can download too! 🎨
Place the design on the Cricut's virtual mat by clicking "Upload", then "Upload image", and choosing the design you want from your files.
Resize your design to the right size.
Once the design is ready, click "Make It". The screen should look like this. ⬇️
Since this is heat-transfer vinyl, you need to make sure your image is mirrored. That's because heat-transfer vinyl must always be cut mirrored so the design appears the right way round when you apply it to the fabric.
To switch your design to mirror mode, click the "Mirror" button on the left-hand side, under the mat thumbnail.
When you click the toggle, the button turns on at the left, and the mat shows the design reversed. 🔄
Click "Continue" and you'll be prompted to choose your machine. For this article, we're using the Cricut Maker, but the Cricut Explore Air 2, for example, also does an excellent job of cutting heat-transfer vinyl.
If you select the Cricut Maker to cut your heat-transfer vinyl, you'll be prompted to set your material.
We chose "Everyday Iron-On", which is suitable for standard HTV, but there are also options for glitter heat-transfer vinyl, flock HTV and all the other types of HTV that are available in our heat-transfer vinyl shop. (All the settings for our HTV are available in each product's description.)
After you've selected the material, the machine will ask you to insert the mat and the cutting will begin.
All you have to do is wait a few minutes for the cut to finish, and then you can remove the mat.
Placing the vinyl on the Cricut mat
After showing you how to cut HTV with the Cricut machine, we're going to give you a few tips for correctly placing the vinyl on the cutting mat:
1️⃣ The shiny side of the vinyl should always be positioned face down. It's important to note that some vinyls aren't the same color on the front and the back, while others have the same colors on both sides. To make sure the cut works properly, the key is to rely only on the distinction between shiny and not shiny, and not on the color of the vinyl, which could be confusing.
2️⃣ Once the vinyl is on the mat, load it into the machine using the button with the flashing arrow on your Cricut. Then press the Cricut button to start the cut.
3️⃣ Once the cut of your design is finished, peel the vinyl off your Cricut mat. If you peel the vinyl off the mat, it may curl up at some point, but that won't affect the cuts.
4️⃣ The more you use your Cricut mat, the more it's likely to lose its adhesive properties. Once your vinyl can no longer stick to the mat, you don't need to buy another one: you can use masking tape to make the vinyl stick to the mat.
5️⃣ Here's a little tip: don't be afraid to do a test cut beforehand. Select a small design and go through the cutting process using your heat-transfer vinyl. This lets you avoid cutting mistakes and waste if you're not quite sure which settings to use.
6️⃣ Cut your vinyl to the size of the design you want. When you're setting up your mats, most of your designs won't need a full sheet of vinyl. You can pre-cut your heat-transfer vinyl to a size close to that of the design. Use the grid lines on the mat to work out the size you need, and give yourself a little 2cm margin.
Removing excess heat-transfer vinyl
Once you've removed the vinyl from your cutting mat, the next step is called "weeding". It simply means removing the excess vinyl around your design that you don't want to transfer onto your final product.
How can you avoid wasting vinyl when weeding?
If the design you've cut is much smaller than the piece of vinyl it was cut on, we recommend cutting away the excess vinyl before you start weeding.
You can simply use a pair of scissors to cut around your design. This lets you use the rest of your piece of vinyl for another project.
To remove the excess heat-transfer vinyl, you'll need a weeding hook.
Transferring onto fabric
We're now ready to transfer our cut and weeded design onto our t-shirt! 👕
To correctly transfer the heat-transfer vinyl onto the fabric, you need two things: heat and pressure. To do this, you can use an iron or a heat press.
How do you apply the vinyl to the fabric?
Start by plugging in your iron or your heat press and set the temperature to 150 degrees. Then place your design on the fabric with the clear plastic carrier sheet on top, so the design sits on the right side.
Press down with your iron and apply pressure to every part of the design for about 10 to 20 seconds. Some types of vinyl need more or less pressure, so check the instructions for the material you're using.
If you're using an iron, be sure to move it around as you press to make sure every part of the design gets heat and pressure.
Once every part of the design has been pressed well, you can start slowly peeling off the carrier sheet. If the vinyl hasn't stuck to the fabric, you'll need to repeat the process.
NOTE: some types of vinyl are "cold peel", which means you have to let the vinyl cool down completely before removing the clear plastic sheet.
Once the heat-transfer vinyl has been applied correctly, it's ready to wear. Let the HTV bond to the fabric for at least 24 hours before washing it. For best results, wash the t-shirt inside out.
And that's everything you need to know to complete your very first HTV project!
We know that learning a new machine and a new program can be a bit tricky sometimes, but luckily Cricut has managed to create one of the easiest machines and pieces of software to use on the HTV market. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to send us an email at contact@papier-transfert.fr.
If you'd like to create fun HTV projects with the Cricut Maker, Cricut Explore Air or Cricut Joy machines, check out our heat-transfer vinyl shop! The creative possibilities are endless with this material! 🤩
