Layering Vinyl on fabric

Hi there! I was thinking of layering two colors together of vinyl on a shirt. Has anyone tried this before?
I have a logo tha that has a drop shadow like effect. I could inlay, but I was wondering if I could just stack the yellow on the black.

Image is attached!

If I do the inlay option, has anyone found a way to keep the shirt in one place with a jig so that the image is aligned?

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Maybe Cricut videos about layering HTV on shirts would be helpful?
Here’s one:

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This helps with the layering, but I wonder about accurately layering the layers. hmmm. I guess I could just google or youtube this.

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you can use a registration mark that you remove once you align them.
There should be videos showing how to do that that will explain better than I can off the top of my head. :slight_smile:

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Totoro and Chibi Totoro are layered here - I just eyeballed it tho since the backing material on HTV is clear and sticky.

Check your HTV’s instructions- some do or do not recommend layering.

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Lovely! This is getting me excited! Tell me, were you able to use a simple iron? A lot of videos I have seen use some kind of heat press. Thanks!

Many kinds of HTV allow layering, but not all of them. Flat colors and glitter often allow it. Special effect HTV like holographic usually does not.

The ones that do allow layering will still often have a couple of special exceptions like “do not layer on top of Midnight Blue.”

From my experience there is a good chance that your layering idea will work OK but there are no guarantees unless you can find something written by the manufacturer.

It is hard to use a hand iron for HTV because to get good adhesion you really need even heat and pressure, and the heat has to be in a specific narrow temperature range. There is no reason not to try it but practice on disposable stuff. You may also need some kind of contact thermometer that you can use to measure the bottom of the iron.

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Just because I don’t see it clarified anywhere - you know you can’t cut actual vinyl, right? No PVC, poly vinyl chloride in a laser.

As for layering - can you stick the gold to the black first and then lay them both on the shirt?

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There is a laser friendly htc vinyl now. Glowforge sells it and a brand I got at michaels works too. Siser easyweed htv.

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I know, but so many new laser users don’t so we try to be careful about using the “v” word :slight_smile:

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I wish we could! Also magnets for cars. That would be cool.

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It would be hard to do while keeping the little thin pieces tidy and well aligned.

This stuff has heat activated glue. Usually what you do is press on the bottom color, line up the next layer, and just re-press.

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I think this is what I’ll do and maybe cut like a guiding line or something. I was also thinking of cutting out the part with the lorals and then using angelus paint to fill those in making the vinyl into effectively a stencil/mask

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I have both but I used a mini iron for this jacket - you have to be careful about heat and movement.

The backing is clear and sticky, you should be able to eyeball a design like yours just fine.

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A pet peeve of mine: The word “vinyl” is used where it probably shouldn’t be used… like in product names such as HTV (heat transfer “vinyl” ugh), some of which are laser-safe and do not contain any actual vinyl.

This topic has come up before and several of us have expressed concern that someone might not understand due to the word usage. We just try to remind others when we can. No one wants to breath toxic fumes! :grimacing: And it can also damage the machine, but of course that’s the secondary concern.

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