These 6 Christmas Flour Sack Towel make a great gift. Youi can never have enough towels in the kitchen. These designs celebrate the season and are functional. Just what we need in the kitchen. I’m giving them to my family, but Cordelia wants to keep them all. I guess I need to make more.
There are 6 different designs so one ought to please everyone. All 6 are in the Design Space file but I divided up the SVG files into 6 different files. Make one or all of them. Several of them require layering the vinyl. I cover how to do that in detail here. But I will talk a little about that in this tutorial, too.
What you will need
- Various types and colors of HTV
- Blank flour sack towels
- Iron or Easy Press
- Download File(s)
Cutting the Christmas Flour Sack Towels
If you only knew how many times I have cut the wrong side of HTV. LOL. I use a pick to separate a very small part of the HTV in a space I am going to weed anyway. It is easy to tell which side is the HTV and which side is the “paper”. Put the “paper” side down. BTW if you ever cut the wrong side, just turn it over and re-cut. Most brands the backing is thick enough that you didn’t cut all the way through it anyway. It makes weeding a little more difficult because you now have two images, one reversed on the wrong side, but at least the vinyl isn’t wasted.
Obviously you cut each color separately. If you cut all six Christmas flour sack towels at once, the colors are coordinated so multiple towel will be cut from the same color. Move the colors around the mat to save vinyl. There have been reports of that being difficult in the new version of Design Space and I haven’t found a workaround yet. Just do what you can.
Here are the basics of moving images around the mat. This video doesn’t deal with the problems most people are having, but I will remake the video if I find a work around.
Working with Glitter Vinyl
I always set my cricut on custom materials to cut then you would select the material “glitter iron on” and set it to more. This seems to work with one cutting but before you unload your mat, check to make sure it cut all the way through. If it didn’t press the C and it will cut again.
Never put another layer of vinyl on top of glitter or foil vinyl. It just won’t stick.
Weeding the Christmas Flour Sack Towels
Once the pattern is all cut, you need to weed it. I have a Cricut Bright Pad but I didn’t need it on this project because it weeded fairly easily.
Also you will need a sharp pick. I have a set from Harbor Freight that cost 2 or 3 dollars. I have just found a pinpen from 651vinyl.com that works great. While you are there look at the weeding ring. It is great! I used to stick the weeded vinyl to my hand but my skin had a reaction to the sticky. The weeding ring solved that.
Here is another trick that works well. Rub a very little bit of baby powder on the back of the vinyl. You will be able to see the lines clearly. If you do this, make sure to wipe the baby powder off with a damp rag before applying the vinyl. It works especially well on glitter vinyl, which is harder to weed.
Ironing the Christmas Flour Sack Towels
I have an Easypress. I used it for these projects because of the size of the designs. Look up the settings at Cricut’s Heat Guide based on what type of vinyl you are using. If you use an iron, you will have to reposition it to cover the whole design.
With an iron set and the highest setting without steam, warm the area you are going to put the design on then place the design where you want it. Press fairly hard on the design in segments. Use a lot of pressure. You are trying to melt the material and force it between the fibers. After you have pressed each area, go over the whole design slowly a few times.
Some of the vinyl I used was warm peel vinyl. The only way I know to tell the difference if you don’t have the label is to try it while warm and if the vinyl sticks to the paper, let it cool more. Glitter vinyl is not warm peel. If it doesn’t stick well try again. Glitter vinyl is very difficult to melt. This make take a few tries.
After it cools and I’ve taken the paper off, I always repress the design just to make sure it seals. If you repress the design, use parchment paper between the iron and your design.
Again, if you are layering your vinyl, never put a layer on top of glitter or foil vinyl. It just wont stick.
Working with Multiple Layer Designs
This tutorial does not have “Fun Facts” because it is so long already, but they will be back in future posts.
This tutorial contains links to sellers of which I am an affiliate and get a small commission. Your price is not affected.
Thanks for this info I’m going to make a set of 3 to take to Christmas parties for the host!