Sometimes you may want something different on your shirts other than a one-color heat transfer vinyl. Maybe you want to make a shirt using multiple colors.

But it may be a bit intimidating since it needs some special skills. Don’t worry.

You are in the right place to learn them.

In this tutorial, we would like to take you through a step-by-step process on how to layer HTV. Before that, we would like to discuss more about HTV.

What is HTV?

First of all, HTV stands for Heat Transfer Vinyl. HTV is a material with a carrier that has been specially formulated. You can apply it easily with a combination of pressure and heat.

An excellent example of HTV is the Siser EasyWeed. This is a high-quality brand that most people find easy to weed and use.

You can also apply it on fabrics like leather, polyester, cotton, and poly/cotton blends.

With HTV, you can add your customized touches to T-shirts and garments among other accessories. Many crafters are hoping to start an HTV vinyl business because it helps them design what they want.

HTV is available in pre-cut sheets.

How can you layer HTV?

Layering HTV shouldn’t be stressful anymore. Below are the steps to follow to complete the whole process.

Step 1

• Mirror and size design

You need to mirror your design as you start your heat transfer project. It’s easy to do this using your Design Studio Software.

Choose the whole design then click on Object, Mirror, and finally Flip Horizontally. You can lastly level your design to the size you intend to cut it at.

Step 2

• Fill the Design Elements

It’s now time to change each color of those designs so that they can match the vinyl you will use for each of them. You can use the Fill Panel to do this.

Through this step, you will get to know the outlook of your final design and each cutting will be easier.

Step 3

• Remove overlapping elements

In the third step, you need to make sure you don’t layer HTV on top of another one, to reduce extra thickness.

This step helps you line up your pieces and offers you thinner results as well. Let’s say you are making a bunny with sunglasses.

• Layer the mouth and bunny ears on the bunny head.
• You can first make copies of the lenses and keep them aside for later use.
• Select both the sunglasses and bunny head shape and click on the “Modify” Panel.
• Select “Subtract” to cut the shape of the sunglasses from the bunny head shape.
• You can then shape the sunglasses to be a bit larger using the offset tool. You can as well repeat this step to cut lenses from the shape of the sunglasses then you will be ready to cut.

Step 4

• Cutting By Fill color

In this step, we are going to separate different elements of the colored design into their specific layers. You can get the “Action By Fill” from the send tab.

You should tap on “Action by Fill” from the send tab.

This step makes it easy to separate each area of the design of every piece of vinyl.

Step 5

• Weed

Weeding involves removing the excess vinyl from your design. You should make use of your weeding hook to do this.

Step 6

• Iron each layer on

After weeding, you need to iron each layer. Begin with the topmost layer.

Use an iron on the cotton setting to apply your design to the shirt. However, you should turn off the steam before doing this.

Avoid giving the first layers a lot of heat immediately as they will still be heated with the additional layer. After cooling off the flocked vinyl, get rid of the clear plastic then apply the following segment.

Cover the design with multi-use paper or parchment paper. This protects the vinyl that you had previously applied from the iron.

Repeat these steps until you apply all layers. That’s all about layering HTV. However, there is yet another way to layer HTV vinyl.

How to layer HTV without the cut-out method

You can as well layer heat transfer without using the cutout method. This method involves cutting by color using the silhouette.

We are going to use the DIY mermaid bag. Here’s how.

• Go to the second tab on the Silhouette studio software then press on “Action”.
• Select “Fill” under the “Action” tab. This should help you separate the design into various layers depending on the fill color of every shape.

Action by line is another option that can help you separate by line color.

Find out the colors you don’t want to cut at the moment and uncheck them. Choose the colors you wish for the current material and check them.

Choose the correct material on the drop-down menu.

That’s how easy it is to layer HTV without using the cutout method.

Layering HTV shouldn’t give you a throbbing headache anymore. You can now get the designs you want using different colors.