How To Make Shirts With Cricut?
Have you ever had a thought about if you could use your Cricut machine to make shirts? You can! The best part? It’s easy and fun while letting you create something that is beautiful and creative. You can also let your individual style shine through and learn new skills that enable you to make something truly stunning. Not to mention that a handmade shirt design is a fantastic gift to give someone.
The idea behind this is popular because you have so many options to choose from, and in fact, with the program that your machine offers for projects, you will see that there are dozens for you to pick which let you be more innovative and creative in what you choose.
The program was invented and put into place to help crafters unleash their inner creativity while understanding how to create different designs which let them connect with people in a new way. Providing users with every holiday and cute saying imaginable, you will never run out of ideas which is great because you get the opportunity to hone your skills.
It is straightforward to learn how to make shirts at home, and it is perfect for when you need to have a little fun too! Once you master the art of understanding your machine, any project becomes easy to do, and you will expend little effort in making positively unique designs.
How To Use Your Cricut To Your Advantage
In this tutorial, we cover basic tips and show you how to succeed in the following areas.
• Understanding your Cricut machine
• How to design a t-shirt with your machine
• Tips and tricks to make this process easier (these will be interspersed in each section before we add a few tips at the end to ensure that you have the best chance of success).
In many cases, when someone is beginning a project on the Cricut, they will experience difficulties in making it work properly, and the goal with this tutorial is to help you to be able to create something magnificent whether you are a pro or a novice. There is always more to learn and explore, and understanding your machine inside and out helps you to become an expert instead of staying at a beginner’s level.
We will go through each area step by step so that you understand everything concisely, and you won’t have any questions about how to make this project a success. For example, when you are learning how to create t-shirt designs with a Cricut, you will see that the process is daunting, but fun and your creativity will come out in spades. In addition to this, the step-by-step instructions and the tips and tricks should help you avoid beginner mistakes and issues that can be almost impossible to avoid when performing your first project.
An example of what we mean is that eighty percent of crafters will completely ruin their materials and their mats on a first project. That is why a test project is so vital for you to utilize.
Let’s Understand Design Space!
Before we get on the machine itself, the first thing you need to do is measure the width of your shirt. A good tip here is never to make your design more than twelve inches less than the width of your shirt. A good example is if your shirt is 24 in width, half of that (or minus 12) is 12. So make your design 12.5 as a precaution, and you should be fine. Just keep the structure near the twelve-inch mark.
Design Space
Design space is the area where you create projects. Before you can do a successful project, you will need to understand how it works. The first thing you will do after choosing your image and uploading it into the platform is to begin tweaking your project.
Your first move will be to log into your space account before clicking CANVAS. This is where you will edit everything, and you can have fun learning all the bells and whistles.
The panels are split into four categories.
• The green area is the canvas.
• The yellow panel (it will be at the top) is made for editing. Here you can arrange your elements, choose your sizing, alignment, and fonts. There is also a subpanel that will open underneath this where you can calibrate and check your account.
• The purple panel (it will be on the right) is made for layers
• The blue panel (it will be on the left) is made for insertions
If you already have the picture loaded into your projects area, click my projects, and you will see the image. That offers you the chance to avoid repeating the process over and over. A great tip to utilize here is understanding that by saving as you go, you can prevent crashes and frustration if you had to start over.
Make It
When you have chosen the file or uploaded it, your next step is to click on the make it button. Now you will see that you have different mats, and you have the option of deciding if you want to cut multiple items. For example, if you were going to make multiple shirts, you can add two or possibly three designs to your project.
After editing and making sure you have it the way you like, finish the final editing. Now that you understand how to work with Design Space, you will be able to know how to make shirts at home
How To Make Vinyl Shirts With Cricut
Now that we have covered how to perform your first steps in the program, you are ready to learn how to make vinyl shirts with Cricut. When learning how to use a Cricut to make shirts, you will need to choose your design or image and upload the file. It will come up as an SVG. You can change the width and size to what you need, and the height will adjust automatically.
The picture here is showing one of the designs that would look good on a t-shirt. https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-make-t-shirt-designs-with-a-cricut–cms-36147 offers a helpful tutorial to go with this image.
Time To Attach
Once you hit this stage, everything is attached and ready to go. If not, simply click the connect button, and you will see a preview. A big tip here is never cut, or hit makes it until you see the preview. If you like it, click on the mat and hit the mirror. Another tip you need to keep in mind is knowing what mat you have connected. That is what will cut.
Shiny Side Down And Weeding
When choosing your mat (the mat will tell you what you can use on it), you will want to place the shiny side down. Now, remember that you also need to use a weeding tool. Do not poke through the mat. Instead, poke the side of the vinyl, and it will come right up. This will be your process after clicking make it. Once you make it, you need to get it off the mat.
This image from https://jennifermaker.com/which-side-of-iron-on-vinyl-goes-down/ shows you how to tell the difference. After you have gotten all the excess material off, you are ready to press the shirt.
Heat Press
Using the Cricut Easy Press, you can press the vinyl to stick, and it will look amazing. Never use a home iron. It will ruin the vinyl, and it won’t last. https://cricut.com/en_us/heatguide offers a beneficial heat guide that lets you see what you should and shouldn’t do.
First, pre-press the shirt, so you don’t have wrinkles or moisture at all. Next, protect your table by placing a towel under the shirt. If you can, place the design in the center of the shirt.
You will need to press the vinyl carefully for thirty seconds. When it cools, you can peel it away. A helpful hint is to place parchment paper over the shirt before you press it. The press should cover the entire design and press it firmly. Please do not remove it before it’s time. It can also be helpful to press the back of the shirt as well.
https://cricut.com/en_wo/cricut-easypress shows what the easy press looks like.
You will have the perfect design and shirt that will be the ideal gift for yourself or for others.
Additional Tips
When you are learning how to make t-shirt designs with a Cricut, you can look around on different websites and find the best images and options for creating innovative designs that really draw the eye to your message.
Our first additional tip for how to use a Cricut to make shirts is to look around the internet to find a design you really like. Another piece of information is to do a test project first. Vinyl is expensive, and you don’t want to waste it. However, depending on where you are, dollar stores have now begun to carry vinyl to make this a more straightforward and cheaper option.
Craft stores also have deals and coupons for these products as well. You don’t have to spend thousands on these products. Look online at places like Facebook or Amazon and you will find so many options for materials that are high quality at a low price.
Rock Your Shirt
Now that you have the best tips for using your machine and making a remarkable statement, you can make a fabulous shirt that really stands out. We hope that you enjoyed this tutorial because our goal is to help you learn the skills that you love and help you understand how to do this easier.
Many people think that using one of these machines is practically impossible, and we hope this tutorial shows you that that is not true at all.
Have a fantastic time crafting, and rock your new shirt. Please comment below if you loved and enjoyed this tutorial, and please share this tutorial if you enjoyed it!
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Table of Contents
Can you wash shirts with cricut vinyl?
Yes. You can wash shirts with cricut vinyl, follow these instructions from cricut.com:
“We recommend using a cold water wash on all Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) products prior to application in order to soften the material and remove any residue or oils that are present on the surface of the material and inside the backing. Place your HTV product(s) in a small pillowcase/hamper/storage bag before washing. In order to keep them clean, we do not recommend putting more than one shirt at a time into your washer as it may cause friction and result in pulling up of the transfer film off of one or both of the garments.”