How To Use Heat Transfer Vinyl | Heart of a Mountain Mama

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As I await for my little boy’s arrival, I wanted to make him a coming home outfit! I wanted to share these steps with you on how to use heat transfer vinyl with a silhouette cameo.

Item you will need:

silhouette or cricuit machine (this post is for the silhouette cameo)
heat transfer vinyl
fabric
iron

Step 1: Design your pattern that you will be using. This post is not on how to create a design in the silhouette software. Hopefully I will get to that in the near future! Here is the design I will be using.

Step 2: When using heat transfer vinyl, you will need to actually cut out a mirrored image. Simply go to Object, Mirror, Flip Horizontally, as shown in the picture below. I am using the silhouette software.

Step 3: Send to the Silhouette Cameo. Simply click the Send tab at the top right corner. I selected Heat Transfer, Smooth as my material and the defaults worked just fine. I also selected Cut Edge, just to be safe.

Step 4: Load your material onto the cutting mat. I used VVIVID+ Black Premium Line Heat Transfer Garment Vinyl Film and I have loved it! You can find it here.

You will see a shiny side and a dull side to the heat transfer vinyl. You will want to lay the dull side face up when you place it on the cutting mat.

See the differences here

Step 5: Select LOAD on your Silhouette Cameo to load the cutting mat.

Step 6: Select the Send button at the bottom of the software and let the cutting begin!

Step 7: Peel away the excess vinyl so that just your pattern is left.

Step 8: Weed out the insides of the lettering with your weeding tool.

Step 9: Place the pattern onto your fabric, with the plastic side face up. Heat up your iron.

Step 10: You can directly iron on the plastic piece, however, if it is too hot, it will shrivel up. You only need to do it for about 20-45 seconds. If the vinyl still isn’t sticking to the fabric, iron on for about 15 seconds at a time. Simply PRESS the iron on the plastic, don’t rub. It can drag the vinyl across the fabric.

I use a towel if the vinyl doesn’t transfer with the first press, to prevent it from getting too hot.