T Shirt Vinyl - Making Great Shirts at Home

Whether it's for a kids ball team or the next family reunion making your own T shirts can be a lot of fun and save you a lot of money. There are many products available on the market today to help you make your own garments. One of the most common types of material available is vinyl. The vinyl for this is applied to a shirt by a heat process. These types of vinyl are made for high quality applications and have now become available to the home user with machines like the Cricut.

How T shirt vinyl works

There are a few different varieties of T Shirt vinyl, but the one that we will discuss here is most common and easiest to use for the home crafter. For our purposes here I will talk about Siser brand EasyWeed vinyl. This T shirt vinyl is made up of two parts, the vinyl itself and a clear protective sheet.

The clear protective sheet comes as part of the vinyl and ends up acting like transfer tape does for regular sign vinyl. Because of how this comes on the T shirt vinyl it makes you have to do everything backwards. This sheet also protects everything during the heat transferring process.

Then you have the T shirt vinyl itself. For the Siser product it is a thin plastic film that appears to have no adhesive. The desired shape is cut out and then a heat press or an iron is used to activate the adhesives in this vinyl. The heat and pressure allow the vinyl to grab on to your garment. When the heat transfer is complete the protective layer is removed and the vinyl is now applied to the garment.

T shirt vinyl application

Ideally you need a Cricut machine or something like it in order to cut your vinyl. This allows you to make the desired shape or lettering and still leave one piece of the protective film. This way it keeps everything lined up nicely.

This type of vinyl is commercial grade and designed for professional shirt making. The pros will use a device called a heat press. This is sort of like a waffle iron that you put your shirt into. These are fantastic devices, but not really practical for someone wanting to make a few T shirts at home.

For the home user and ordinary iron will work great. Set your iron to a cotton blend setting. This is approximately 300 degrees. For the Siser product this is ideal. Then iron the spot where the vinyl will go. This removes any moisture and wrinkles. Place the vinyl on the garment and apply firm pressure with the iron. It only takes about 10-15 seconds to get the T shirt vinyl attached to the garment. Then peel off the clear protective layer. You now have a completed project.

T shirt vinyl care

This vinyl is specifically made for clothing. So off course it is also made to be washed. While the vinyl is very durable it is still somewhat delicate. Since the process to attach the vinyl involves heat it is not a good idea to wash it in hot water or dry on high settings. Siser recommends that garments made with this vinyl be washed in cold water, tumble dry on low, and turn the garment inside out during the cycle.

Learn More About T Shirt Vinyl
ExpressionsVinyl.com is your source for all kinds of home vinyl making supplies. They carry a full line of T Shirt vinyl as well as regular sign making vinyl. All perfectly sized to fit your Cricut or Silhouette machine.


T Shirt Vinyl - Making Great Shirts at Home By Carl Tyger