DIY Fourth Wing T-Shirts with your Cricut (with FREE SVG's)

If you haven’t fallen into the black hole of obsession that is the Fourth Wing Fandom then this post probably isn’t for you. BUT if you love Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, Onyx Storm and the entire Empyrean Series (aka Violet and Xaden) then you’re in the right place. Because with the latest release of the third book (I’m looking at you Onyx Storm) I’ve decided I need a few t-shirts to show off my love of all things Fourth Wing.

Of course, I’m not affiliated with the wonderful Rebecca Yarros or Fourth Wing in anyway… I’m just sharing a few designs I made with all of you. Enjoy!

I mean… I’m slightly obsessed with making fun t-shirts for all of my favorite shows and books. Just take a look at the entire collection of shirts I made back in the Game of Thrones hay day. Or this fun Outlander shirt I made last year! Or even the fun Chenford shirts I made for my love of the Rookie.

When it comes to the Empyrean I whipped up a *ahem* few fun SVG’s but today we’ll be working with three of them. “There is nowhere in existence you could go that I wouldn’t find you, Violence.” “We do NOT eat our allies” and my favorite “Save a Dragon, Ride a Wingleader” which is less of a quote and more of a dream.

Either way you can use any of the SVG’s you like… I’ll stick with these 3 for now.

Ready to get started?

Supplies:

Cricut Maker 3
Cricut Roll Holder (for smart iron-on)
Fine-Point Cutting Blade
Cricut Standard Grip Mat (that’s the green one!)
OR Cricut Fabric Grip Mat (that’s the one I use… it’s pink and holds everything)
Cricut Easy Press 9 x 9
Easy Press Mat
Heat Resistant Tape
SVG Cut Files (you can download these for FREE down below).
Transfer Tape
Weeding Tool
Brayer
Smart Iron-On
Rose Gold Iron-On
Standard T-Shirt

Check Out the FULL VIDEO Tutorial:

Step 1: Upload your SVG’s

Alright y’all first things first, go ahead and download your cut files then you can upload the SVG’s straight to Cricut Design Space. Each design is grouped separately but you’ll want to go into the group and weld each design individually.

Keep in mind that each design has 2 colors: pink and black to coordinate with the black smart iron-on and the metallic rose gold iron-on. That doesn’t mean you have to cut black and rose gold (you can pick 2 any colors you like!) but if you decide to skip the double color you can simply weld the entire design into one piece. Otherwise you’ll want to weld all the black pieces (in one design) together and all the pink layers (in one design).

If you skip the welding step Cricut Design Space will try to place all of the letters onto your cutting mat in a way that uses the least amount of iron-on possible. Instead of “Save a Dragon, Ride a Wingleader” you could end up with “aaaaadddeeeeggiilnnorrrsvw,” Which doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Confused as to what welding is? Not sure how to group your designs? I show you the entire process in the video up above (and if you’re still confused you can check out my walk-through of Cricut Design Space where we go over every. single. button.)

Step 2: Cut your Designs

Now that alllll our cut files are good to go, ready to roll, hot off the press it’s time to cut these bad boys! All of the SVG’s are sized at 9 inches wide (which is the standard size for a typical t-shirt) but you can adjust the size if you’re working on a different project. Next you’ll select you’re machine… today I’m working with my Cricut Maker 3 so we can use smart iron-on for 2 of our designs.

Of course, you can use regular iron-on if you’re working with a different machine.

Cricut Design Space will ask you if you’re using a cutting mat (with either the Maker 3 or the Explore Air 3)… and I selected Multiple Ways since our rose gold iron-on will be on a cutting mat and our smart iron-on will not be.

Double check that all your cutting mats look good and that you’ve turned mirroring on for all of your designs (both iron-on and infusible ink require mirroring… without it all your words will be backwards!). Now you can select your material from the drop down list!

The best part? Iron-on is cut 100% backwards! Which is why we needed to turn the mirror function on for all of our cutting mats! You’ll load all of your iron-on onto your cutting mat upside down… or in the case of smart iron-on (like I’m using) you’ll load it directly into your machine upside down. That’s because all iron-on has a built in carrier sheet (the clear plastic sheet over the iron-on) and you need to cut into the actual iron-on… not the carrier sheet.

So turn mirroring on, flip your iron-on over and load it into your machine. Then you can hit go and watch the magic happen!

Of course, if you need a refresher Cricut Design Space will spell all of these instructions out for you. Go ahead and cut both colors (I used white and pink for one of the 3 designs since it’s going on a black t-shirt) and then we’ll move on.

Step 3: Weed your Designs

Ready to weed? If you’ve never weeded a design before (that sounds so weird!) it’s super easy. Basically we’re going to remove allllll the negative spaces from our design. The excess material around the letters and alllll the interior portions. The dot inside the o, the top of the e!

This is pretty easy but can be a little tedious so grab your favorite audio book (have you listened to the dramatized version of Fourth Wing?) and let’s get started.

You’ll want to grab a weeding tool for this one… then use the sharp end to remove that iron-on! As with any weeding watch your letters as you go so that you don’t accidentally tear off the end of a t or remove the dot of an I.

Once you’re done using your weeding tool to remove all the tiny interior pieces you’ll have your iron-on design left on a carrier sheet.

Wicked!

Step 4: Use your Easy Press to Apply your Design

Alright y’all now that our design is ready we’re going to apply it to our shirt… using our easy press. Start by placing your shirt on an easy press mat and lining it up. I try to keep the top and sides straight to the easy press mat so that when I apply my design I can line up straight as well. Then smooth it out and lint roll your shirt to remove any dust or hair that might be on it.

Especially if you have *ahem* dogs. Or cats.

This is just a standard t-shirt I picked up at Wal-Mart so it wasn’t in a protective bag… it needed major lint rolling.

Place your Iron-On Design

Now place your design! For a rule of thumb in addition to finding the middle of the shirt I like to place my design four fingers beneath the neck… this seems to be a good distance. Then I match the center of the design to the center of the shirt and smooth it out from the middle to the edges.

Typically with iron-on you won’t need any heat resistant tape to hold the design in place but I did use a piece or two to help layer the two different iron-ons together before putting them onto the shirt.

It’s much easier to place one cohesive design then two separate ones.

Use your Easy Press to Set the Ink

Adjust your easy press to 315 degrees with a time of 30 seconds… and once it’s ready make sure to hit your design from both the front and back. You’ll want to use steady pressure here but it doesn’t need to be ultra firm. Normal pressure will do!

Slow, Cool Peel your Iron-On to Reveal the Design!

Let your design cool down and then slowly peel off the carrier sheet! It should come off easily but if it’s catching on any letters hit them again with the heat.

Make sure to pay special attention to our layered iron-on in this step… I needed to hit that rose gold iron-on a bit harder with my small easy press. Once they were heated up a second time the carrier sheet came off clean and they were firmly bonded.

Crisis averted!

I did all 3 shirts the same way buuuut you may have noticed that I added 3 little sheep to the sleeve of my “We do not eat our allies” design. Aren’t they cute!? There isn’t a special technique for this… just line them up and hit them with the easy press!

My only tip? Make sure you don’t have any of the iron-on on the front of your shirt accidentally under the sleeve or the easy press when you’re heating up the sheep. If that’s difficult I would do the sleeve first and then the front of the shirt… it’s much easier that way!