Create your very own designs to put on fabric, like a t-shirt or a bag, with Silhouette’s stencil vinyl and fabric ink. Silhouette’s fabric ink is soft drying, so it’s soft to the touch and less prone to cracking and peeling. Want to see how easy it is to add a design with fabric ink? Just follow the instructions listed below.

Supplies Needed:

Step One: Cutting Out the Stencil Vinyl

1. Open the Sweetheart design (Design ID#238972) in Silhouette Studio®. Remember that you are using this design as a template, so you might want to draw a rectangle or square around your design to make it easier to weed out the design and leave the negative space.

2. Feed the stencil vinyl roll directly to the Silhouette cutting machine using the roll feeder. If you are using the CAMEO, don’t forget to adjust the rollers according the size of the stencil vinyl you are going to cut. In Silhouette Studio®, go to the Page Setup panel, choose None as your mat option, and adjust the page size. If you use a cutting mat, place a piece of stencil vinyl on the mat, adjust the rollers if needed, and feed the mat into the cutting machine.

3. Under the Send panel, select “Vinyl, Glossy” as your material type. Adjust the blade if necessary, and click Send.

4. Weed the design (or remove the unneeded vinyl), but don’t weed the negative space like you normally would with other vinyl or heat transfer designs. Remember, you are making a stencil to apply your design, so you need to weed away the actual design. Also, make sure to keep the centers of the letters.

Step Two: Applying the Fabric Ink

1. Apply transfer tape on the weeded stencil vinyl and remove it from its backing.

2. Place the vinyl on your project. Press down firmly and carefully remove the transfer tape.

3. Place a thick piece of cardstock under the material you are going to apply fabric ink to in order to prevent ink from bleeding through. Apply regular black Silhouette fabric ink on the design. Use a paint brush or sponge to apply the fabric ink. When you are applying ink, be careful and not go over the stencil borders. Let the ink dry.

4. Remove the stencil vinyl.

5. Place a piece of cloth on the top of the fabric ink design and iron on top for a couple of seconds to set the ink.

Now your t-shirt is ready to wear!