Weeding Vinyl With Tape

If you try to use tape on regular adhesive vinyl the whole thing does come up.

Weeding vinyl with tape.

The heat transfer vinyl is stuck down onto a paper and it takes some effort to get it off. Once your application tape covers the vinyl smooth the surface with long slow sweeps using a squeegee or a credit card. After the design is cut it is time to weed the vinyl. Some people remove the outer piece of vinyl then transfer the design and weed all the details on top of the sticky transfer tape.

For adhesive vinyl you can weed directly on the transfer tape. After the design is weeded it is time to apply the transfer tape. It s where you apply transfer tape across the whole unweeded decal and then weed the excess vinyl away from the transfer tape instead of the carrier sheet. When using removable adhesive vinyl you can save the small details for after you have completely transferred your piece.

Your vinyl is not weeding correctly. Once you get your vinyl on your transfer tape flip it over and weed off the backing paper. Some people prefer to add a weeding box. Next carefully peel the tape off the vinyl backing sheet.

Apply transfer tape and apply to surface. Burnish and remove transfer. After you ve smoothed out the tape use a straightedge to firmly press out all the bubbles and creases and bond the application tape to your vinyl. Weeding off the transfer tape helps the little parts to stay in place because they re stuck to the transfer tape rather than sliding around the vinyl s paper backing.

In theory this is easier to weed for smaller decals than doing it the regular way. Cut weed and apply the vinyl weed the vinyl. Reverse weeding is for adhesive vinyl only. Check out the extended post for step by step details.

Your design should be safely attached and ready for transfer to the receiving surface. I have only found it to work on heat transfer vinyl that you apply to fabric. For this method you d want to place the transfer tape over your entire design and then pull the paper backing off the vinyl. It is an easy fix for a few stubborn pieces of backing paper attached to your vinyl.