Weeding
• When weeding, you do not want the waste vinyl inadvertently coming into contact with the shapes you want
to keep. Thus, use a paper piercer or a weeding tool to gently lift away pieces of waste vinyl to discard.
• Peel the waste vinyl parallel to the surface versus pulling straight up which will tend to lift up the shapes that
need to stay attached to the backing.
• Use small scissors, if needed, to carefully cut a waste section you’ve pulled away if it’s becoming unwieldy.
• If you have a detailed design, you might want to leave the design showing on your computer monitor so that
you can verify all parts have been weeded.
Applying
• If you are applying small lettering or doing an etching application, do NOT weed the waste vinyl from the
backing sheet. Instead cover the entire piece with transfer tape and apply to the project surface. Smooth
down firmly and evenly, remove the transfer tape, and then weed. The adhesion between the vinyl and a
hard surface, like glass, will make weeding much easier, with less likelihood of small shapes coming loose.
• To transfer large vinyl designs to a wall or window, apply transfer tape across the vinyl, repeating and
slightly overlapping rows of tape to completely cover the design. At the top, have one layer of tape with just
the bottom half covering the vinyl so that the top half can be pressed to the wall and used as a hinge. Once
you have the vinyl aligned as desired, flip up, leaving that top piece of tape adhered/hinged to the wall.
Remove the backing sheet from the vinyl. Then carefully bring the vinyl back down and begin pressing to
the wall, smoothly and evenly. Use a vinyl scraper (or old credit card) to smooth out wrinkles and get better
adhesion. Gently peel away the transfer tape from the top and smooth out again with the scraper.
• There are various methods of aligning multiple colors of vinyl. Here are a few examples along with video
links. Note that there are dozens and dozens of other videos on this topic so search on You Tube for “multi-
color vinyl applications” if these particular videos do not help you with what you need to know:
Some users will add alignment shapes (such as two squares) to their project above or to one side of the
design. Refer to Section 2.07.4:
Others will use the wet method in which a small amount of vinyl application fluid is sprayed onto the
vinyl so that upper shapes can be “slid” into alignment with lower shapes before drying:
Another method that is especially clever involves using a clear transfer sheet to visually align and hinge
before applying an upper layer of shapes:
5.03 Iron-on / Heat Transfer Vinyl Tips
• There are many kinds of HTV available: regular, patterned, glitter, puff, holographic, stretch, and more.
When selecting one, take note of the manufacturer’s recommendations, such as which types of fabric are
recommended, pressing time and temperature, and laundering instructions.
Preparing the Design
• The size of the design needs to be appropriate for the intended garment size. Here is a chart to help you
with sizing, as well as placement:
https://www.icraftvinyl.com/blogs/news/proper-sizing-placement-for-your-heat-transfer-vinyl-designs-free-guide
• In general, it’s best not to layer HTV when applying. Thus, with overlapping colored shapes in a design,
you’ll want to cut one shape from another. Use the Knockout function presented in Section 7.23 of the
StarCraft CREATE User Manual.
• For easier weeding of the waste from the backing sheet, add some weeding lines.
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