How to Make Your Own Sock Grips
with Brick^® 600 Heat Transfer Vinyl

It’s been exceptionally cold in the Midwest lately. The snow and ice have kept many (including myself!) at home cuddling up instead of commuting to school and work. One of my favorite ways to stay warm and cozy is wearing fluffy fuzzy socks. I’m sure you’ve probably seen these popular socks at the Dollar Store, in the Target Dollar Bin, at Bath & Body Works or really anywhere socks are sold. Sometimes these socks come with rubber-y grips on the bottom for added traction and “no-slip grip.” If you’re slipping and sliding in your socks because they don’t have grips, then I have a quick trick for you using Siser’s thickest heat transfer vinyl, Brick® 600!

Here’s what you need to make your own Sock Grips…

DIY Sock Grip Supplies

Fuzzy Socks (mine are 97% polyester and 3% spandex)
Brick 600 Heat Transfer Vinyl
Electronic Cutter (like the Cricut Explore Air)
Scrap of Cardboard
Ruler
Scissors
Weeder
Heat Tape
Home Iron
Heat Transfer Cover Sheet

First thing to do is measure your foot and see about how much space there is to fill. The midsection of my foot is about 3″ x 4″, and I’m a women’s size 9, so if you’re near that you could probably get away this measurement. If you’re decorating kids’ socks though, you’ll definitely want to take your own measurements.

Use a scrap piece of cardboard and scissors to make a template. The template acts as a guideline to ensure you decorate the intended portion of the sock as well as stretches the fabric slightly to allow for a smooth, even pressing surface. You could also use a heat transfer pillow to make a smooth surface, but it won’t double as your size guide like the cardboard does.

Now I can replicate the 3″x4″ square in Cricut Design Space so I can size my snowflake shapes appropriately. I figured out if the snowflakes are 1″ I can fit 8 of them on the socks. Before clicking “Make It”, I deletee the square so just the snowflakes will be cut.

Brick 600 is over 6 times the thickness of EasyWeed® HTV, so it requires a deeper cut setting. I highly suggest performing a test cut before you commit to cutting your full design. Check out this post for test cut basics and how to identify a good cut and a bad cut so you can find the best setting for your blade. Remember, new blades are sharper and will need lower cut settings, while older blades are duller and will need higher cut settings. Our suggested cut settings can be found on every product page of our website bellow “Cutter Settings.” Click here for Brick’s recommended cut settings.

Don’t be intimidated by Brick‘s thick appearance though! Like most other HTV’s, it still goes on your cutting mat with the carrier (shiny) side down. Load the mat into the machine and send your design to cut.

After cutting: unload the mat, peel the sheet of HTV away from the mat, and trim the excess with scissors. If you didn’t do a test cut, it’s possible the carrier was cut through. You’ll know this happened if your cut shapes stay behind on the mat when you peel up the sheet of HTV. While this isn’t ideal, all is not lost! Keep reading for the trick to applying those loose pieces.

If your shapes stay on the cutting mat while lifting the sheet of HTV away, you’ve cut too deep.

If your cut settings were tested, then you likely had a typical weeding process and ended up with something similar to the picture below. Note that Brick 600 has a static carrier and not a sticky carrier like EasyWeed. Static carriers require a little extra patience and care when weeding since anything that gets removed can not be re-stuck to the carrier.

Weeding Brick 600 from its static carrier

The carrier was not cut through so all the shapes stayed on the carrier.

Now that we have our sock grips cut out, it’s time to apply them! Let’s start with the pieces that were cut too deep and that trick I promised you guys. To keep your loose pieces in place, heat tape does the trick! This heat safe tape is usually blue or red and is a great tool to have around. Just make sure your HTV is laying with the carrier side up and the adhesive side touching the fabric before securing it in place with a piece of the tape.

Since my cardboard template is already inside the sock, it’s ready for some heat! My iron is set to “Cotton” and no steam. Before heating, place a heat transfer cover sheet (parchment paper or Teflon can also be used) on top of the socks. Then press firmly for 10-15 seconds. I had to press in 2 sections to get all the heat transfer vinyl applied. Make sure to focus the center of the iron on the HTV since it is the hottest and gets cooler around the edges.

After pressing, wait until the carriers are completely cool before peeling. Brick 600 is a cold peel and will lift if you peel the carrier while it’s still warm. Removing the carrier is easy if it wasn’t cut through. If it was though, a Siser Weeder can be useful to help separate the carrier from the HTV.

Use a Siser Weeder to separate the carrier from Brick 600

A Siser Weeder helps to separate the carrier from the applied HTV.

When all the carriers are gone, you’re left with a pair of custom socks that are ready to keep your toes warm and won’t slip thanks to your DIY Brick 600 sock grips! Keep in mind that HTV adheres to fibers and fuzzy socks have long fibers, so if any HTV appears to be lifting, it’s likely just stuck to the long bits of fabric and will shift as the fibers do. That doesn’t mean that these bad boys can’t be washed though! They’ve already been through 5 normal wash and dry cycles and are still hanging on strong.