Lounge Team USA Style When You Cut Longer Than the Silhouette Cameo Mat

As Olympic athletes prep for the most important competition of their life I’m preparing for two weeks of lounging on my couch in awe of their achievements. Women’s Gymnastics has always been my favorite event, and with the return of Gold Medalist Gabby Douglas and newcomer Simone Biles, this competition will be one I can’t miss. While I admire their talent, I know there is no Olympic podium in my future. Unless it’s a gold medal for most microwave popcorn eaten (talk about a competition I could get behind.) So, I thought I may as well revel in my couch potato state, but with a Team USA twist!

To make Team USA joggers you will need to be able to cut longer than the standard 12″x 12″ cutting mat. Fortunately, EasyWeed can be cut in the Silhouette Cameo without a cutting mat! All you need to do to cut longer than the mat is change a few settings in Silhouette Studio. First, go to Design Page Settings and select Custom on the drop down menu.

Now you can change the height of the mat. I measured the pant leg of my joggers and they are 25 inches long. However, my sheet of heat transfer vinyl is 30 inches long, so that will be my Height measurement. You’re settings will all depend on your measurements. Finally, change the Cutting Mat setting to None.

Just 3 simple steps to set up the Cameo to cut longer than the mat! Nice and easy.

To cut longer than the mat you will have to load the HTV into the Cameo a little different than usual. Align the material so that there are equal margins outside the white pinch rollers. Then select Load Media instead of Load Cut Mat. To make sure the HTV is loaded in straight use the Move arrows on the touch pad to roll the material back and forth. If no errors occur then you’re really ready to cut longer than the mat!

My cut settings for EasyWeed without the mat are Blade:2, Speed:5, Thickness:4. The speed was lowered to keep my material from flying of the pinch rollers and my thickness was lowered because I don’t have the extra weight of the cutting mat.

After the Silhouette Cameo cut out my design I weeded away the excess and brought my transfers and my joggers to the heat press. Set your heat press to 305°F. You’ll have best results when pressing pants if you use a heat press pillow. This will give you a flat surface to work on while forcing the seams into the pillow during pressing. It’s all about having even pressure for the best applications!

Press the bottom half of the leg for 10 seconds.

Don’t remove the carrier yet. Instead slide the heat press pillow under the un-applied vinyl and press for 10 seconds

Peel the carrier sheet. Notice how the stripes lay flat on either side of the seam with no air bubbles. Thanks heat press pillow!

Add the white and Navy EasyWeed letters and press for 10 seconds. Then peel the carriers hot.

Add a cozy couch and some of that yummy popcorn I talked about earlier, and I’m all set to cheer on Team USA at the 2016 Summer Olympics!

Cutting EasyWeed and other Siser heat transfer vinyls without a cutting mat on the Silhouette Cameo is a breeze! Being able to cut longer than the mat allows for so many design possibilities. If you’ve cut an extra long piece of Siser HTV I’d love to see the finished product. Send us a picture through the Siser App, available on the App Store and Google Play.