DIY Christmas Sweater with Cricut EasyPress 2

Can’t find the perfect Christmas Sweater this holiday season?  You can create a DIY Christmas Sweater using your cutting machine and the Cricut EasyPress 2.

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It’s no secret that making shirts for my family is one of my favorite things.  Since I got the Cricut Explore Air 2 a couple years ago and now have the Cricut Maker, making shirts has just become second nature.  When Cricut came out with the EasyPress, it was a match made in heaven!  Making DIY shirts for Disney Vacations, Birthdays or Holidays was a snap.

Cricut EasyPress 2

This year, Cricut brought out the EasyPress 2.  What is great about the EasyPress 2 is that it now comes in 3 different sizes.  I love that there is now a perfect size for any project. I also love that it is a beautiful red raspberry color.  (Red is my favorite color.)  The heat plate makes a nice uniform heating surface to get great coverage.  And it heats up super quick.  So I can get to ironing on my designs as soon as I weed the iron on vinyl.

In the past the 9×9 EasyPress size has been my go to size.  But when I decided to make this DIY Christmas Sweater, I knew the 10×12 EasyPress 2 size would be perfect for full coverage of my project.  Instead of placing the design on the center of my shirt, which is what I normally do, I wanted the design to cover the entire width of my shirt.  The 10×12 EasyPress 2 did the job perfectly.

Working with Multiple Files in Design Space

I created the DIY Christmas Sweater using SVG cut files from the newest Fresh Cut Bundle Cozy Christmas.  All of these files are just perfect for the holidays.  The designs come as PNG, SVG of DXF to use with any cutting machine.  Which means there are so many ways to use these files, not just for cutting vinyl.  Let the Christmas crafting begin.

There are several designs to choose from in this bundle with the classic Christmas Sweater style.  Once you’ve downloaded the bundle, upload the svg files from the bundle you want to use to make your DIY Christmas Sweater into Cricut Design Space.  Choose the files in your Cricut Design Space uploaded library and insert them onto the canvas.

When working on the canvas to create your design, use the weld, duplicate, and align tools to create a Christmas Sweater Design you will love and that is unique.

When you have a finished design, select all the layers and click attach at the bottom of the layers panel, so when you click make it, the design will cut correctly.

The design above I created for my daughter and wanted it cut out of one color of iron on vinyl.  When I created a DIY Christmas Sweater for myself, I wanted it to be 2 different types of iron on.  I held down the command/control key on my keyboard as I selected the layers I wanted cut out of green glitter iron on and once they were highlighted, I clicked attach.  I did the same with the layers I wanted cut out of white iron on.

DIY Christmas Sweater

When I was ready to cut the iron on, I placed the iron on face down onto the cutting mat (shiny side down), and clicked the mirror image in Cricut Design Space.  Once I loaded the cutting mat into the Cricut Maker, I selected glitter iron on as the material and hit the go button.  I did the same with the white iron on vinyl.  But I edited the material to everyday iron on, made sure the mirror image button was clicked and loaded the cutting mat into the machine.

I weeded (or removed the unwanted vinyl) the design and turned on my Cricut EasyPress 2.  Set the EasyPress 2 to 330 degrees which is what is called for when working with glitter iron on.

Lay your shirt on top of the EasyPress Mat and heat the area for 5 seconds. Press the green glitter iron on first, but only pressed each area for 15 seconds.  When layering vinyl make sure you press the first layer for 1/2 the time it calls for and then the final layer you press for the entire time.  And also, make sure you cover up any vinyl with the plastic protective sheets or a pressing sheet to keep the vinyl protected.

Remove the protective plastic sheet from the glitter layer and lay down the white iron on vinyl design.

Lower the temperature to follow the guide for using everyday iron on, and press for the time designated in the instructions.  30 seconds on the front, and then 15 seconds on the back.  With this large design and using the large EasyPress 2, I was able to press this shirt in only 2 sections.

Everything was nice and pressed when I removed the plastic protective sheet from the shirt.

Now that I’ve made a DIY Christmas Sweater for myself and my daughter’s, my son has requested one as well.  I can’t wait to make one for the entire family!

Truth be told, I just used long sleeve t-shirts for these “sweaters”.  It’s so warm here in Phoenix, even in the winter, that I rarely wear a sweater, so these long sleeve t-shirts are perfect for us.

These Christmas Sweater designs would also look cute as gift tags or holiday cards.  Make sure and check out all the files in the Fresh Cut SVG Cozy Christmas Bundle.

Happy Sweater Making!

Liz

 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.