Heat Transfer Vinyls
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Using a vinyl cutter to cut your designs opens up the opportunity to use other media like heat pressed vinyls. These have come a long way from the initial video flexes which used to be a thick and didn't allow for much detail. Most of the newer flexes have a sticky backing allowing for intricate designs to be cut and weeded (removing all the excess material) easily. They are made with polyurethane which gives the flexes an incredibly crisp smooth and soft feel. If applied well they will wash incredibly well too. They can be ironed onto fabric but by using a heat press you will get more consistent results than ironing by hand as you get an even pressure and you can set the temperature and time precisely. Flexes are great for polyester and other moisture management fabrics and you get specific ones for Nylon fabric too. You can press them over seams and around collars and already made up garments with layers etc where screen printing would be more difficult.
Silhouette Vinyl Cutter
Poliflex is great for making individual names and numbers for shirts, adding names to already screen printed designs. Poliflex and other similar products make it possible to offer personalized prints and even once off designs without having to set up a lot of screens. It is also great to be able to cut a design and press it onto a shirt to see if the size and position are right before making up a screen and then having to change it. You can make up a design, cut it and heat press it to take pictures to put online, if people like it you can set up a screen and screen print the designs. Poliflex should cut with a standard 45 degree blade in your vinyl cutter.
I have used poliflex as well as screen printing for some print runs when the job has only a few units. I would screen print the white and then use poliflex for all of the colours saving time on screen setup. Poliflex is also great for printing onto fabrics which cannot be stuck down to a board like a pocket on an apron.
White screenprint with 3 different green poliflexes
Poliflock
Poliflock has a felt like surface and a very luxurious velvet finish. Check with your supplier but flock should be cut with a 60 degree blade unlike most normal T-shirt vinyls which can be cut with a regular 45 degree blade.
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Poliflock is very opaque and you can't see background colours through it and it has a very crisp finish - lovely on kids and baby clothing. Unlike Rubylith which is see through, Flexes, flocks and other heat pressed materials are usually not see through so cutting designs is a lot more difficult unless you have a vinyl cutter. Designs need to be cut in mirror image.
Applying poliflex and poliflock to fabric
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An iron can be used (make sure not to use the stream option) but for more consistent and reliable results use a heat press. Check your instructions and do sample and then a wash test.
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A good tip for applying a polyflex with a heat press is to first press the garment for 5 seconds and open the press, this allows excess moisture to leave the fabric instead of interfering with the heat pressing of the vinyl. Then you press the vinyl and peel off the backing tape while either hot or cold depending on instructions from the supplier - but now before carrying on, press the design again for another 5 seconds to ensure the designs smaller details and edges are pressed well flat.
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Cut the design on your poliflock in reverse(mirror image) and then weed the design.
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Flock needs to be cut with a 60 degree blade.
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Iron your fabric first
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Place the design on fabric
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Iron the design
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Check a corner to make sure it has stuck to your shirt.
Some products require a hot peel others a cold peel, so check your instructions,
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Slowly peel off the backing tape and make sure the pieces are not lifting, if they aren't applied well and start lifting, iron again before lifting the backing tape.
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Iron the design without the backing tape. Add any other additional colours in the same manner.
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Final design with yellow and white detail added to the eyes.
Some colours of poliflex can be layered others cannot - check with your supplier. With some colours you can put a solid colour down first and add the second layer directly on top. With Flock you need to fit exactly into each other with no overlap.
Poliflex
With Poliflex I would make a circle in white, press that onto the garment and then add the black detail. This makes lining up the colours in the design easier.
Poliflock
With Poliflock I would make the white detail, press that onto the garment and then add the black detail. These parts have to fit exactly into place and cannot have any overlaps.
Vector Graphics
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To cut a design with a vinyl cutter you have to have your design as a vector.
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To get an idea of what vectorizing entails have a look at my blog post on Vectors & Halftones