Aurora Sisneros

How to Iron Vinyl

Aurora Sisneros

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Duration:   2  mins

Description

Learning how to iron vinyl can be helpful before tackling a sewing project that requires it or a fabric like it, such as oilcloth. Aurora Sisneros shows you how to iron vinyl in both flat pieces as well as on finished projects. She even shares a tip on how to get wrinkles out of vinyl without having to use an iron at all.

Protecting Vinyl

You can buy a material known specifically as a press cloth, or a press cloth can simply be a piece of fabric that you place between the item you are pressing and your iron. A press cloth can be a scrap of fabric or even a towel, as long as you know it’s clean. The cloth helps protect the fabric being pressed from melting. If you start pressing vinyl or a similar fabric with a thicker press cloth, like a fleece or flannel, and you aren’t getting results try switching press cloths before changing the heat on your iron. Switch to a cotton press cloth and try again. If you still aren’t seeing results you can turn up the heat on your iron a small amount. It is always important to let the iron heat up before pressing, this way you will know from the start whether the iron is too hot and can avoid surprises like the iron heating up halfway through pressing and melting the fabric.

Sewing Vinyl

Sewing vinyl, like sewing with other fabrics, can require seams to be pressed in a certain direction. While this may be easy to do on a flat piece of vinyl it can be tricky as a project comes together in a more complicated shape. Using Aurora’s tip on how to iron vinyl by warming your pressing mat could work on seams as well as just wrinkles that you may have in your vinyl.

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11 Responses to “How to Iron Vinyl”

  1. Nancy McKewin

    I use a blow dryer to turn my vinyl bags. Easy peasy.

  2. anja

    hello you use the iron to get the wrinkles out of pvc, but when you want to make a sharp pleat in pvc is that also possible with an iron

  3. Daniela Syed

    you can also use a blow dryer to help you turn a bag right side out... works great for bags... iron is a great tip when it is flat.

  4. Rebecca

    Would you tell me what the pattern is for the vinyl bag in the "How to Iron Vinyl" video?

  5. Denise

    What gauge vinyl did you use for this vinyl bag, please?

  6. Karen

    Thanks for the great info and well-done video. Looking forward to using these tips.

  7. Esme

    A bit off subject but I absolutely love your top! Could you direct me to the pattern? Many thanks. Your vinyl ironing was super!

  8. Marilyn

    Very good info. But what I really want to know is what pattern did you use for that great vinyl bag?

  9. beth boyer

    How

  10. Alice

    sorry that the video was not available. maybe u can send it to my email. thanks.

If you've ever worked with vinyl or even oilcloth, you know that when you store it, usually you roll it up. And if it sits there over time, it tends to compress and it can be really, really wrinkly. I have a few tips for you on trying to iron out the wrinkles in both vinyl and in oilcloth. So here I have a piece of vinyl. Now, the best thing to do is, if you have a nice warm spring or summer day, go lay this out flat in the yard or on a back table or on a patio, and let the sun warm it up. If you just leave it out there and it gets nice and hot, after a while, the wrinkles will fall right out of it and it will be supple. However, if it's the middle of winter, you obviously don't want to wait till spring to work with your vinyl. So I have a piece of vinyl right here. The easiest thing to do is put your iron on a low setting and just take another piece of fabric and put it over the top of your vinyl. And then you can just gently iron it out. You don't need any steam. It will just get the vinyl wet. So you can do that to iron the wrinkles out. If the wrinkles don't come out, turn your iron to one setting higher, let it warm up, and try again. Now, that's if you have a flat piece of vinyl. Let's say you've just made a bag like this. And when you turn it inside out, it's a huge wrestling match. Even if you start with really nice flat pieces of unwrinkled vinyl, as soon as you turn that sucker inside out, it wrinkles up like crazy. So you can't exactly put this down and iron on top of it. So what we're going to do is we're going to take our hot iron. And you can put this on a cotton setting, that's fine. And you're just going to warm up your entire mat, just like this. Get your mat nice and hot. Once your mat is nice and hot, you can put this face down. And you just want to use your fingers to press the vinyl to the mat, just like this, and smooth out any wrinkles. And it's just the perfect amount of heat to get all of the wrinkles out of your already made vinyl bag.

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