Make a T-Shirt with Me!
Go from a customer placing an order to shipping the order out!
Gather Materials: For vinyl, I use either the Cricut brand or Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby brand) iron-on. For shirts, I like to use Gildan or Comfort Colors. Any shirt that is cotton, polyester, or a blend should work!
Turn on Heat Press & Cricut: I like to heat up my heat press while I am designing and cutting vinyl so that it is ready to go. ***If you do not have a heat press then a regular iron should work, but only use the part that does not have holes in it.
Make Your Design: I use Adobe Illustrator or Procreate for the iPad, but there are other options such as Adobe Photoshop, Canva, etc. I make my designs with one color and only use layers when I am ironing on multiple colors.
Export as .png: Make sure that the design has a transparent background! ***If you have multiple layers, export those separately.
Upload to Cricut Design Space: Since it is one color, choose the “Simple” image type. Next, make sure all lines are smooth. Then, select “Cut Image” as the upload type.
Resize & Mirror: For shirts, I never go beyond the 12x12” cutting mat, so I usually make my design a maximum of 11 inches. Make sure that “Mirror” is ON!
Place Vinyl on Cutting Mat: You will want to place the shiny side down!
Insert Mat into Cricut & Set to Correct Cut Setting: I choose the Iron-On Setting so that it doesn’t cut all the way through.
Press Go & Wait for Cricut to Cut
Weed Vinyl: Take your weeding tool or tweezers and remove the excess vinyl that is around your design. You will want to remove the part that you do not want to be ironed onto the shirt! ***Be careful not to rip or weed out the wrong part!
Measure & Iron-On: Use this Heat Guide to help determine how long and what temperature: https://cricut.com/en_us/heatguide. Place design and iron on.***TIP: I fold my shirt in half and iron so there is a crease and then I fold my design in half and line those up!
Quality Check: Peel off the transfer sheet and double-check that everything is stuck down! If not, place the transfer sheet back on top and iron again.
Add Tag: I like to add a tag with washing instructions that I print on cardstock.
Fold & Package: I use bubble mailers that I ordered from Amazon to package my orders.
Add Stamp & Address: You may have to wait until you go to the post office to add stamps due to it depending on the weight of the package!
Ship Order: Drop off at your local post office, FedEx, or UPS store. I always like to inform my customer when it is shipped so that they can be looking out for it in the mail!
