How To Bring Multi Color HTV Designs To A Backpack
School is almost back in session and it’s about time to upgrade your plain old backpack with a fresh look! In this video, I’ll be showing you how you can customize a cotton or polyester backpack with Siser EasyWeed heat transfer vinyl.
If you’re ready to customize a backpack for yourself, your brand, or your customers, Siser EasyWeed heat transfer vinyl is what you need. While EasyWeed HTV is great for clothing, it also works perfectly with many other materials. The backpack we’ll be customizing is made with polyester, which is perfect for EasyWeed.
EasyWeed HTV is perfect for single-color designs, but we want to customize this backpack with a multicolor graphic. While EasyWeed can be layered on top of itself, you can also apply layers side-by-side using an intentionally broken-up design or the knockout method on an existing design. To apply multiple layers at the same time, you’ll need to trim each layer of your design right to the edge of the graphic, which we’ll cover in detail as we go along.
But first, you’ll need to measure the area of your backpack where you’d like to apply your design. Keeping your measurements in mind, you may then find or create the graphic design you’d like to cut with your colors of EasyWeed HTV. For a tutorial on how to achieve the knockout method, we recommend checking out our extended tutorial videos linked in the description.
Once your design is ready, begin cutting its layers through your vinyl cutter. For this video, we’ll be using a Silhouette Cameo cutter with Silhouette Studio software, but much of these steps will also apply to other cutters and software.
Before you send to cut, draw a weed box around the design, then go to the Send tab on Silhouette Studio and set the Material to “Heat Transfer Smooth.” Change the blade depth set to 3, Force to 6, and Speed to 8. Before cutting however, we recommend completing a test cut of your material to ensure your settings are correct. Once you’ve done so, select the layer matching the color of your loaded vinyl, then click Send and Send Mirrored to cut. As a tip, it’s a good practice to group or make a compound path of your layers so that the appropriate shapes can be cut for a particular vinyl sheet.
With all your layers cut, trim around their weed boxes, then weed them out. If you want to heat press the individual pieces together at the same time, you’ll want to trim around the edges of each layer as close as possible. Doing so will allow you to place them as close together as possible upon application.
Set your heat press to 10 seconds, at 305 degrees Fahrenheit, with medium pressure. Once your machine is ready, you may bring your backpack to the lower platen and slide a pressing pillow inside the area you’d like to apply your design onto. For certain machines, you may need to replace the removable silicone pad with the pressing pillow. You may then pre-press the bag for 2-3 seconds. Be sure to hold onto your bag to keep it in place. Next up is to piece the design together on your bag’s imprint area. You’ll want to make sure that your layers are flattened and positioned properly onto your bag. Once the design is all together, cover it with a protective sheet then press. After 10 seconds, open your machine and peel each EasyWeed layer either warm or cold. You have now customized your backpack with an awesome multi-color graphic - thanks to Siser EasyWeed HTV!
If you’d like to share your cool HTV backpacks or other applications with us, plus a large community of heat transfer enthusiasts, be sure to join our HeatPressNation Creators Facebook group at heat.press/FBgroup . To learn more about Siser HTV and other materials, please visit us at HeatPressNation.com. For any questions, feel free to contact a MyExpert representative at support.heatpressnation.com.
