Cutting Vinyl With Silhouette: Making Patterns

We’re planning to go on a couple of small getaways this year and I made this DIY Leaf Patterned Travel Bag to hold my travel accessories. How did I do it? By Cutting Vinyl With Silhouette! I have not used adhesive vinyl in a while and I thought it would be perfect for this project. Have you tried cutting with vinyl? Read on to see how I made a pattern with it!

What is Adhesive Vinyl?

Adhesive vinyl is a flexible material with an adhesive (sticky) backing. You can purchase it in rolls or flat sheets from anywhere that sells craft supplies. What is the difference between adhesive vinyl and heat transfer vinyl (HTV)? Heat Transfer Vinyl is a similar material to adhesive vinyl, however its adhesive is activated by heat. This is the type of vinyl you will need when making iron-on vinyl projects like t-shirts, canvas bags, etc. Adhesive vinyl is better suited to smooth or hard services whereas heat transfer vinyl is more suited to softer materials like cotton.

What You Need For Cutting Vinyl With Silhouette

• • • Silhouette Studio (there is a free version!)
    • Silhouette cutting machine (I used my CAMEO)
    • Adhesive Vinyl (I purchased and used the matte green vinyl and tools from this Silhouette Vinyl Starter Kit). Another option is to just buy the vinyl on its own in separate sheets or rolls
    • Something with a smooth surface to put your vinyl pattern on – in this project, I use a clear Travel Bag
    • Solid image pattern in .png format. In this project I used a leaf pattern  (I used this one from Creative Market)

*This post contains affiliate links for products that I use and love!

How To Make A Leaf Pattern With Adhesive Vinyl On A Travel Bag

• • 1. Open your pattern with Silhouette Studio
    2. Create a circle the same size as the top surface of your round travel bag
    3. Resize the pattern for cropping
    4. Place your circle on the pattern
    5. Crop the pattern using your circle
    6. Use the Trace function to trace the pattern. You will now have an outline of the pattern. This will be your cut line that will be cut on the vinyl
    7. Clean up any stray points of the outline using the point-editing tool (double click the image and you will see all the points), if necessary
    8. Load your adhesive vinyl onto your Silhouette cutting machine and send your image to cut using adhesive vinyl settings
    9. Once your adhesive vinyl is cut, unload and peel away the negative space of your shape, so that only your pattern is left. The starter kit I mentioned above comes with a hook tool that is very helpful for this process, which is also called: weeding
    10. Use the grid transfer paper that comes with the kit to transfer your adhesive vinyl pattern to your travel bag

And that’s it! All you need to do now is load your cute pouch up with travel accessories and jet away to paradise. Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!

Looking for some more crafty inspiration? Take a look at my Silhouette CAMEO projects!