Many people have hobbies; mine is what created a small
business. I’m a mother to two, a wife and a leader. I strive hard to be the
best I can to provide for my family and that’s what made me decide that I
wanted to get crafty and make a business for myself. I create custom shirts,
baby onesies, hoodies, and sweatpants with whatever graphic design you can
think of right from my home. It started off as a hobby, and I was only making
shirts for my family. Soon that turned into taking orders, and now I am a vendor
at special events.
My first step was watching tons of you-tube videos. I
watched how to create my design, cut it and weed the vinyl. How hard the
project gets depends on the type of vinyl chosen. Glitter vinyl seems to be the
hardest for me, but through practice I’ve gotten pretty good.
Step by step I worked to create my home-made art pieces.
After creating my design on “Design Space,” I have to make sure that the design
is the correct size and that it’s also “mirrored” if I am putting it on a
clothing item. Making sure the vinyl cuts to the right size can be tricky
sometimes since all the different brand shirts vary a bit in sizes.
Once mirrored, selecting the type of material I am working
with is the next step. I’ve realized through trial and error you can’t always
click what you are working with. After choosing the material the next step is
clicking the “make- it” button, and that’s when the fun begins. The machine I
use starts to cut the vinyl into the exact design I created on the computer.
After my image is cut the next step is to ensure I weed
(pull excess vinyl off) the vinyl. It can be hard remembering the correct
pieces so it’s best to look back at my image as I weed. Weeding is my favorite
part. I use a small curved pick tool to pull the excess vinyl off and it calms
me. It’s almost like an adult coloring books, picking the intricate pieces off.
After weeding the vinyl off my next step is to iron the
shirt I’m going to be using. This ensures that all the wrinkles are out, and
the vinyl will apply evenly. It’s required to preheat the shirt also. I have a
heat press for this, and I normally set the temp to 310 for 30 seconds. When
the shirt is finally free of wrinkles and is preheated for the vinyl, it’s
ready to set the vinyl on the shirt. Before I heat press the vinyl make sure
the design is exactly where I want it because it’s set in stone when I press
it.
Most of my designs need 310 heat for 30 seconds on the front
and then I peel the transfer paper off the front of the design. Then I flip the
shirt over and re apply heat at 310 degrees for 15 seconds. After the last heat
application on the back the shirt is ready to sit for 24 hours before being
worn! Viola, 24 hours later, I have a finished piece of art!
