Updated By TeckWrap Craft On September 9, 2024
Heat Transfer Vinyl On Leather Step By Step Guide
Table of Contents
- Step-By-Step Guide on How to Print Heat Transfer Vinyl on Leather Shoes
- Supplies Needed
- Step 1: Prepare Your Design
- Step 2: Iron the HTV on the Shoes
- Optional Step: If You Want to Customize the Whole Shoe
- The Best Heat Transfer Vinyl Designs for Leather Shoes
- TeckWrap Craft’s Ombré Glitter Heat Transfer Vinylo
- TeckWrap Craft’s Galaxy Heat Transfer Vinyl
- TeckWrap Craft’s PU Marble Heat Transfer Vinyl
- Frequently Asked Questions
Heat transfer vinyl on leather shoes? YES, IT’S DOABLE! With
This is the perfect gift-giving idea for family and loved ones, to make your gift extra special. It’s not everyday that you’ll see custom leather shoes, so why not make one on your own? In this craft guide, you’ll learn the step-by-step guide on how to print heat transfer vinyl on leather shoes, the supplies needed and several useful tips on how to pull-off this project successfully. Let’s get right into it!
Step-By-Step Guide On How To Print Heat Transfer Vinyl On Leather Shoes
These instructions are applicable on both leather shoes and canvas sneakers as well. The time and temperature settings differ. You can apply heat transfer vinyl on shoes with a smooth surface, not rigid ones. Heat transfer vinyl adheres well to leather shoes with smooth surfaces as compared to rough or rigid ones. When you apply heat transfer vinyl to shoes, that’s the first thing you need to take note of.
Supplies Needed
- TeckWrap Craft’s Heat Transfer Vinyl
- TeckWrap Craft’s Heat Press machine
- Leather shoes
- Cutting machine (Silhouette or Cricut)
- Cutting mat
- Weeding tool
- Parchment paper or Teflon sheet
- Ruler or measuring tape
- Thermal tape
- Rolled up cloth
Step 1: Prepare Your Design
During this first step, there are several questions you need to ask yourself:
- What kind of design do you want to place on the shoes?
- Which part of the shoe do you want to place it on?
- What size should the HTV be?
- What kind of heat transfer vinyl design will you use?
As soon as you made up your mind and answered the questions above. Prepare your design! Whether it be a cute little star, or a printed name, come up with your design and upload it in your cutting machine’s software editor.
You can always download Free SVGs or use the available designs on your cutting machine’s library of designs. Cricut and Silhouette studio has plenty of vectors available, so make sure to check them out. So here’s what you need to do:
- Upload the design on the cutting machine’s software
- Make sure to adjust the size of the HTV
- Place the HTV on the cutting mat
- Send the design for cutting
- After cutting, weed the excess vinyl. Set the excess heat transfer vinyl aside, perhaps you can use it on your future projects. There are plenty of vinyl projects and fun designs you can do with scrap vinyl.
Step 2: Iron The HTV On The Shoes
Prepare your mini iron, carrier sheet of Parchment paper, rolled up cloth, thermal tape, and of course the shoes you want to print on. Set the mini iron machine on these temperatures:
For leather shoes:
- Heat: Low
- Time: 10 to 15 seconds
Canvas shoes:
- Heat: Medium
- Time: 10 to 15 seconds
- Place the HTV nowhere you want it printed on the shoe
- Place a rolled up cloth inside the shoe so while printing later, the shoe’s print surface is as flat as possible (much like you need a flatbed for your heat press
- Secure it with a thermal tape so it won’t keep moving during the pressing process
- Place a Teflon sheet or parchment paper over the HTV
- Printing time! Press the mini iron over the HTV. Remember to press, not to glide
- Apply firm pressure while printing and avoid hitting areas of the shoes without a cover sheet to avoid it from getting scorched
- Add a few extra seconds of printing time, around 5 seconds, if you think it needs extra pressing time
- Remove the HTV on warm peel
- There you have it! You can now make as many personalized sneakers as you want
Optional Step: If You Want To Customize The Whole Shoe
Perhaps personalizing certain parts of the shoe is not enough and you want to customize the whole shoe, then you can! If you have an almost worn out shoe and want to savage your old shoe, then you can print over it. But not all of it.
This part is a little tricky, and it’s only possible to print on the toe vamp or the upper part of the shoe. The sides and heel edges may be a little tricky to print on. So you may want to set your expectations on printing on the upper part.
So here’s what you need to do:
- sing a parchment paper and pencil, you need to trace over the shoe to determine how big HTV you can print over the upper part of the shoe
- With a scissors or craft knife, cut the traced area
- On your cutting machine’s software, download a blank template of a shoe’s upper part, and adjust the size
- Choose an HTV you want, and cut it on the cutting machine
- With this type of personalization, it is a great idea to use expressions vinyl
- Recommended HTVs: Colorful splash, animal print or camouflage HTV
- Follow the same steps mentioned above when pressing
- Except for the part that you need to press over the whole shoe
The Best Heat Transfer Vinyl Designs For Leather Shoes
So whether you have a worn out Chuck Taylor, a Van’s sneakers, or leather shoes you want to spice up a bit, you can always do so by grabbing your Mini Heat press machine and a special HTV from TeckWrap Craft, you can always do so!
Simply add heat transfer vinyl on the shoe, and you’re good to go. But what kind of iron on vinyl can you use for a leather surface? Here are several choices from TeckWrap Craft’s heat transfer vinyl collection.