Will iron-on vinyl work on velvet? Here at Craftables we get asked this all the time and decided to double down and test it for ourselves.
I was hesitant to iron velvet because I know that it isn't supposed to be ironed. Any seamstress would tell you to steam velvet, do not iron! But I did some initial tests on scraps of velvet and guess what- you can iron htv on velvet! Throughout my tests I've discovered some basic do's and don'ts so stay tuned to learn tips and tricks for the best way to get htv to work on velvet.
If you plan on working with velvet, here are some guidelines of what to look for:
- Short pile. Pile is the length of the fiber. A short pile is ideal because the shorter it is, the less likely the velvet is going to look crushed after you iron it.
- Look for polyester velvet with no stretch- polyester velvet with no spandex and don't try to use velour!
- I would recommend always doing a test first and to carefully read the instructions on your htv!
That being said, the ideal velvet won't be hard to find! Most inexpensive velvet is like this anyway.
What you'll need:
- an iron
- t-shirt vinyl
- a sheet of Teflon paper
- an ironing board
- weeding tools
- craft cutter
- your velvet project- we're using a pillowcase bought from Amazon
Step 1
Weed your HTV and heat up your iron. For this project, I'm using Craftables Smooth HTV in gold. We're going to preheat our iron to 300 degrees (the lower side of the heat recommendation) to make sure we're not crushing our velvet. If you need help with heat and press settings, check out this chart.
Step 2
Once your iron is hot, preheat your fabric. Because we're working with a delicate fabric, I just held the iron very close to the fabric for around ten seconds. This evaporates any moisture from the fabric and will quickly activate the adhesive on your vinyl. Place your decal on your project, and starting with one area at a time, begin ironing your project. We followed the instructions on the Craftables Smooth packaging and ironed the decal (one area at a time) for ten seconds without a teflon sheet, then 15 seconds with the teflon sheet. Use light to medium pressure.
Step 3
Wait for your project to cool for a full 10 seconds before peeling up your carrier sheet. This next part is totally optional, but I decided to apply some more heat to my decal to make sure it really stuck, here's how I did it: after peeling off my carrier sheet I let my vinyl cool for another 20 seconds and then decided to hit it with heat for 7 more seconds or so with a teflon sheet between my iron and my project. Then, without lifting the teflon sheet, I let my project cool for another ten seconds and then peeled back my teflon sheet. Now my HTV looks smooth and is really on there good!
tips:
- Don't iron seams- if you iron a seam you could risk crushing the pile where the seam is.
- Plan your project so your design is not near any seams for the same reason as above.
- Don't use a heat press- your heat press could crush your velvet or crush your seams.
- Don't wiggle while you iron- because your HTV is sitting on tall plush velvet, wiggling your iron could mean sliding your HTV out of place. Keep the iron still while you press.
- Don't use too much pressure- you don't want to crush your velvet! Do a test to determine how much pressure seems appropriate.
- Make sure your iron isn't too hot. If your iron scorches your fabric your velvet will permanently become very flat and shiny.
- Don't forget to do a test!!
I love the way HTV looks on velvet! I'm so glad I tried this experiment because velvet really elevates the look and feel of this project. I hope you try this project and make sure to share your results with us!