Laser Cutting Appliques for a Shirt

Materials Needed

• Siser EasyWeed Heat Transfer Material
  Please refer to this Siser spec sheet - anything listed as "Composition: PU" is PVC-free. (MSDS: Download)
• Heat Press or Iron
• An Epilog Laser System

For this project, we used a 50-watt Helix with the following settings:

Red Vector Line: 50% speed, 10% power, 500 frequency, 1200 dpi

Green Vector Line (Kiss-cut settings): 13-15% speed, 1% power, 500 frequency, 1200 dpi

Adjust the settings for your laser and wattage using the suggested settings from the manual.

Open the file and modify the design as you would like.

Next, cut a sheet of the White EasyWeed material to fit inside your laser, and place it into the upper left corner of your system.

Now send over the Color Mapping speed and power settings (adjusted for your laser wattage) and cut the appliqué material. It's best to test your settings on a small test piece to find the perfect kiss-cutting settings for your wattage of laser.

Once you have kiss cut your heat transfer materials, peel away all the excess material that you do not want to heat transfer to your t-shirt.

• Load your shirt into your heat press, and place your heat transfer material on the shirt (sticky side down). Now simply follow the Siser supplied heat and time settings, and your heat press directions for transferring the heat transfer graphic to your t-shirt.
• Note: If you are using an iron to apply the transfer material, use the heat setting on your iron that matches the material of the shirt you are using. Place a sheet of plain white paper between the iron and the heat transfer plastic. Then apply medium constant pressure to the transfer material, without sliding the iron back and forth. Sliding the iron around can cause stretching and wrinkles on the shirt.
• When the heat press is done, remove the shirt from the press and enjoy your custom t-shirt design - cut with an Epilog Laser system!