What is a Heat Press Used For?
A heat press is a machine that can be used to iron a vinyl cut decal design onto any piece of cotton fabric. It is mostly used for t-shirt making but can also be used on other pieces of fabric.
Pre-design Idea
The inspiration for this design comes from my sister who wanted a dog themed shirt. I found an image that was seven dogs in increasing size order and decided on the "Evolution of Dog" theme.
Original Illustrator Document
This is the Illustrator file I used for my vinyl design. I had to mirror it in order for the design to go onto a shirt.
Vinyl Color Choices
My sister asked me to make the shirt with purple, gold, silver, and white text so that is what I did.
The Design Being Applied
This is my design in the process of being applied to the shirt.
Final Product
Here is the final t-shirt, I will add a picture of my sister wearing it after Christmas because I am giving to her for Christmas.
What Did I Learn?
In this unit of Big IDEA I learned many things about t-shirt design, and using a heat press. I learned that there are a ton of OK t-shirt designs but very few great ones. I learned that I am terrible at drawing dogs. I learned that you must mirror your design because it gets flipped when it is cutting out on the vinyl cutter. I learned that you have to preheat your shirt to help the clear stick plastic on top of the vinyl stay in place. I also learned that you have to lay a Teflon sheet over the other colors of vinyl or else it will stick to the heat press and ruin the design. I learned how to use the heat press machine, and relearned how to use the vinyl cutter.