Alright, ya’ll let’s talk fitness and health for a minute, shall we? I am not only a crafter! I love exercise, fitness, hiking, and just plain ole being active! So I figured lets start crafting some motivational fitness shirts or tanks so we can crush it this summer and beyond:)
At the beginning of this year my honey and I decided to start a year challenge with push-ups. So January 1st we did one and January 2nd we did two, and so one.
The next month we doubled it, so On February 1st we did two and the 2nd we did four. Then in March we tripled it, so the first day of March we did three, the second day we did six, and so on. I think you get the picture. LOL
And I do have to say, with it being April we are already starting to see some results and we are just so excited and so motivated to keep going. Plus it is good for us and our bodies.
May 1st we are going to add another exercise in there to start doing each and every month until we are done. My honey chose push-ups and starting May 1st we will be adding a butt workout to our push-ups.
So I thought I would create some SVGs around fitness.
WHY?
To keep us motivated and going. If you have a shirt that motivates you or a water bottle as a reminder it is more than likely the motivation will come, especially once you start seeing the results. These little reminders stick in our head and we then say YES I want the transformation!
So let us get up and start achieving those dreams and goals we have set for ourselves by holding ourselves accountable and work on our determination!
I am so thrilled to teach you how to make this DIY Fitness Tank or T-shirt! This post may contain some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you! Read my full disclosure here.
Making a DIY Fitness t-shirt or Tank Top using our cutting machine
Before we get into this exciting t-shirt/ tank top tutorial I want to give you an overview of what we will be doing.
I have provided the SVG file below. Make sure you download it and remember where you are saving it to.
We will edit the SVG cut file in Cricut Design Space, send it to our mat preview, cut the HTV, weed the design, and then Heat press it onto our shirt or tank. WOOHOO!
We are now ready to get started so make sure you download the SVG file. 😉 And follow along.
Materials needed for this DIY Fitness Tank for Motivation
- Wake Up & Make Things Happen SVG Cut file
- T-shirt(s) or Tank Tops
- Iron-on (HTV) Color is your choice
- Cricut cutting machine
- Design Space
- Fine Point Blade
- Light or Standard Grip Mat
- Weeding Tools
- Scraper
- Heat Press or Iron
- Parchment Paper
Cricut Design Space- Uploading our Fitness SVG
Alright so once you have that SVG downloaded, the one I provided above, we are going to log into cricut design space and start a blank canvas.
Still learning Cricut Design Space? No problem at all- Check out my Ultimate Beginners Guide to Cricut Design Space
Uploading the Fitness SVG Cut File into Cricut Design Space
So you have now downloaded the SVG file and have Design Space open with a new canvas started.
On the left side panel there is an icon called upload , click on that, then click on upload image like the first picture shows. That will take you to a screen like the second image.
Now we are going to hit the browse button and a pop up appears. This is where you are going to locate the file you just saved. Wake up & Make Things Happen is the file name you will be looking for.
Once you have located the file, select it, and then you are taken to a page that will say Name and Tag Pattern. You can rename it or place a tag on it for easy finding later on. Then once you are done hit save in the bottom right hand corner. See image below.
Now that new SVG file will be saved in your recently uploaded images. Select the Wake Up & Make Things Happen SVG file and insert it onto your canvas. (that little aqua button in the bottom right corner)
Wake Up & Make Things Happen SVG file will now show up on your canvas area in Cricut Design Space.
Resizing the Fitness SVG for our DIY t-shirt or tank
The SVG cut file will need to be resized to fit the shirt you are putting it on. So lets go ahead and size it to the size of your choice.
2 ways to resize your SVG for your t-shirt or tank
- The first way to resize your SVG is by simply selecting it and dragging out the bottom right corner.
- Second way to resize is by going to the top panel and directly putting in the size that you want.
NOTE: There are templates you can work with in Design Space that will help guide you in this process, if you are unsure of the size.
I have a whole article on Templates- Working with Templates in Cricut Design Space
Quick steps for templates
- Left side panel there is an icon called templates click it
- Look for the shirt template
- Change the size and color to what you are working with
NOTE: Templates are only guides. They are just there as a reference and will disappear when you hit the make it button.
Just for fun-real quick
Hit the Make it button and notice what your mat looks like.. A bit of a mess right? So let’s go back to our canvas because there are a few more things we need to do.
Welding the Fitness SVG together for our DIY t-shirt or tank
The first thing we are going to do here is make sure the SVG is selected, head up to the ungroup icon (under the make it icon 2nd icon over), and ungroup this SVG.
The second step is to select the words Wake up, which is grouped together, and head down to the weld icon and weld it together.
Next select the hearts and head down to the weld icon and weld those together. And do the same with the stars.
Now we are going to select the Words Wake Up & Make Things Happen and also the Tear it up kettlebell and weld those together. So to select all these select the Wake up, hold your shift key down and select the others.
You should now have three layers in your side panel like so.
Now we are going to select all three layers and group them together.
You can do this by drawing a box around them (right click with your mouse and draw box) and group them together.
Another way to do this is you can select each layer by holding your shift key down and selecting and then group.
We are now ready to cut this beauty!
Hitting the Make it Button
Oh we are soooo close, I am getting super excited for you!
So we are now ready to cut this beauty! Lets head up to the Make it button, top right side panel-aqua button. (your button colors maybe a different color) It was green, but design space had an update.
Preparing your mats
Here you can change your material size to the size you are using. I usually always leave it at 12 x 12 but some don’t like doing that!
NOTE: if you do use the whole 12 x 12 material, once it is cut you can always trim off the part that was not used before you weed it to use for another project! That question comes up a lot.
VERY IMPORTANT– The mirror icon needs to be on (mirrored) because we are working with Iron-on (HTV).
So before we go any further let’s toggle the mirror on underneath each mat. The image below shows you that under the first mat the mirror icon is toggled on. Do that for each mat.
Once everything is the way you want it lets hit continue and that takes you to the Material Screen.
Material Screen
So on the left you can see that we are cutting three 12 x 12 mats and that our mirror is on! WOOHOO
Now we are going to select the everyday Iron on material, which for me was right below the browse all materials, but you may have to browse for it. And our cricut machine is ready to go.
Did you know you can star materials you use all the time?
Did you know if there are materials you always work with, you can star them as your favorites so that you don’t have to look for them each and every time?
If you move your mouse on top of the material block a star appears in the right top corner. Star it and it will be there each and every time you come to this screen:)
Cutting our Fitness SVG with our cutting machine
So we are now ready to cut our Iron-on (HTV)
Getting our mat and material ready
We are going to grab our light blue mat or green mat, the choice is yours.
If you need more information on Cricut cutting mats you can check out my article on The Differences between the Cricut Cutting Mats-All you need to know
Next we are going to place our iron-on (HTV) shiny side down on our mat.
THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!
If you place it the wrong way you will be cutting the transparent film and not the Iron-on material. And Yes my friend, I have done this many many times.
Loading the mat into our cricut machine
Make sure your cricut has the fine point blade and we are ready to load our mat in our machine.
The arrow light will be flashing, so lets press that and it will load the mat. Once that is done, your cricut button will be waiting to be pressed. OFF your mat goes to be cut by this Awesome machine.
Design Space will then let you know when it is done cutting, when you get that prompt go ahead and unload your cutting mat. Peel off the HTV, then place another color on, shiny side down, on the mat, and repeat until all three mats are cut.
Now we are left with three pieces of HTV (Iron-on) that are cut and ready to be weeded.
NOW, is the time if you have extra material to cut it off so we don’t waste our material.
Weeding the fitness SVG for our DIY motivational t-shirt or tank top
I know I just said this, but If you used material bigger than what you cut and have extra, NOW is the time to trim off the extra material.
We are now going to take our weeding tool and get rid of what we do not need.
Relax and enjoy this process. Weeding can be super fun and relaxing if you allow it to be.
Applying the Iron-on (HTV) to T-Shirt
NOTE: Cricut suggests that you always wash your t-shirts/tanks before applying anything to them. I have honestly done it both ways and haven’t seen a difference yet, but I do usually wash my shirts/tanks beforehand.
Alright, so we have cut and weeded our design and are ready to heat press it onto our t-shirts or tank top. WOOHOO
So we are using every day Iron-on vinyl and cricut recommends that you set your heat press to 330 F and press it for 30 seconds. So lets set our heat press to 330 and wait for that to heat up.
If you are working with different material, I highly recommend using cricut’s guide to help you with the settings for the material you are using.
Step 1
Once your heat press is heated up, let’s take that shirt or tank and press the part that the design is going on to get all the wrinkles out.
Let’s say about 5-10 seconds. Now that all of our wrinkles are out we are ready to move on to step 2.
Step 2
Let’s take our design and lay it on the t-shirt or tank in the desired spot. Once you are happy with where you want the design to go, let us take our heat press and press it for 30 seconds. Then check to make sure it is stuck.
NOTE: I did cut my hearts into two separate pieces because I couldn’t fancy wasting all that extra material between them. I also cut a few stars off and placed them separately. WHEN LAYING DOWN YOUR DESIGN– make sure nothing is getting in the way. make sure all the HTV is on the shirt and not on film. See image below!
NOTE: Some crafters do flip the shirt or tank over and heat press for another 10-15 seconds. That choice is up to you. Sometimes I do that and sometimes I don’t.
Step 3
Once your design is adhered to the shirt or tank let it cool for about 10-30 seconds and begin peeling the transfer sheet away from your shirt and design.
Congrats to you! You just made an awesome tank/t-shirt!
I sure hope this article taught you some things and that you enjoyed our time together! Please share the love! I spend many many hours on these tutorials so please share if you enjoyed this!
I would love to see your creations so please drop a comment with a picture once you shared this article.
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