ScanNCut HTV upcycled dress
This upcycling project shows how easy it is to turn your kids’ drawings into a fun upcycled dress using heat transfer vinyl and your Brother ScanNCut’s built-in scanner.
It’s a great way to upcycle clothing in your own personal style, while immortalizing cherished memories through the fun drawings your kids create.This tutorial will show you the step-by-step instructions on how to use the scan feature on your ScanNCut machines, and then how I cut heat transfer vinyl to upcycling a denim dress.
Materials needed
- Selection of your kid's drawings, the simpler the shapes the better
- White paper
- Thick black pen
- Heat transfer vinyl in a few shades. I used lilac, white and pink.
Equipment needed
- ScanNCut machine
- Canvas Workspace for PC or Mac
- Heat press or iron
- Ironing board or heat-proof mat
- Scissors
- Weeding tools
How to
Step 1
Prepare the drawings for scanning: place the paper over the drawings and hold it up to a window or a light box. Trace the drawing outlines onto the paper with a thick pen. Fill out the lines a little more if needed so that they are clear and dark enough for your Brother ScanNCut’s scanner to recognise.
Step 2
Make sure your Brother ScanNCut machine is set up and connected to the internet. If you haven't already, download and open CanvasWorkspace.
Step 3
Secure one of the drawings on your ScanNCut mat, with the drawn image facing up. Load the mat into the machine. On the touchpad, select the ‘Scan’ symbol. Swipe to the right to select ‘transfer to CanvasWorkspace’.
Tip: there are different Brother ScanNCut mats for different applications, to make sure you’re using the right one for the right project, bookmark our handy ‘ScanNCut mats – picking the right one for your project’ blog post.
Step 4
Once the scanned image has been transferred to CanvasWorkspace, select ‘Image Tracing’ via the top tool bar. Select the scanned image, and then ‘Preview’ to see how it’s scanned in. Make sure you’re happy with the scan (or rescan), and that you have the ‘Outline’ option selected.Press ‘ok’ and this will insert the scanned image outline tracing onto the mat background in CanvasWorkspace, ready to re-size and send back to your machine to cut.
Repeat until you have scanned and converted all the drawings you want to use. If you want to remove anything or add anything else to the design, do that now. I added the other designs on the same mat in CanvasWorkspace, and resized them to have a variety of sizes on one mat. You can now save the designs or transfer them back to your ScanNCut machine to cut them.
Tip: you can also use your ScanNCut’s background scanning function to cut multiple designs from different colours one ScanNCut mat. This not only saves time, but also saves waste, as you can use smaller offcut pieces of HTV instead of throwing them in the bin!
Step 5
Place the heat transfer vinyl onto the ScanNCut cutting mat, shiny side facing down. Use the commands on the touchscreen to cut the vinyl, making sure you select the ‘Half Cut’ option during this process*. Do a test cut first, as heat transfer vinyl can vary in thickness. You want to achieve what is known as a ‘kiss cut’ where you cut only through the coloured layer, leaving the glossy, transparent layer intact.*Note: to cut heat transfer vinyl, vinyl or stickers, always make sure the ‘Half Cut’ option is selected.
Step 6
Weed off the excess vinyl from your cut images so that you are left with only the HTV design on the clear backing sheet of the vinyl.
Step 7
Check your HTV settings. For this standard HTV I set my heat press to 130 degrees Celsius for 30 seconds. Prepare the dress by laying it out on a heat proof mat or ironing board. Plan the placement of the designs, then transfer them one by one.For each design, pre-heat where a design will be placed on the garment for five seconds first. Then lay the HTV in place and press for 30 seconds. Allow to cool before peeling off the backing. Press the on the wrong side of the garment for five seconds where each design has been adhered.
That’s it! It’s a simple project but such a simple way to commemorate drawings that you love. We can’t wait to see how you turn your kids’ drawings into something fun.
Remember to tag both me and Brother if you make this, we love to share your work to inspire others.
