Iron-on vinyl coasters
At the local fabric store I found some iron-on vinyl to play with. It's pretty neat—you can iron it onto fabric or paper. I tested it by making coasters. 
1) Cut out two squares of fabric and vinyl for each coaster.(I wanted to end up with 4" coasters, so I cut my pieces larger than that.)
2) Follow the directions that come with the vinyl to adhere it to your fabric. (Summarized: Pull the paper backing off the vinyl and stick the vinyl to the right side of your fabric. Place the paper backing on top, shiny side down, to protect your iron from the plastic. Iron for 8 seconds, then flip the fabric over and press the back side for 4 seconds. Very easy.)
3) Place two of your newly laminated squares together, vinyl sides out. I secured mine a bit with a fabric gluestick to keep them from sliding around.
4) Mark a square on the fabric with a disappearing fabric marker and sew the pieces together, following your lines.
5) Trim the edges with a pinking shears. 
(This heavy-weight fabric is by Trefle, sent by my supplier in Japan, AKA Megumi.)
66 comments:
aww. i hope there are iron-on vinyl available here...
have a good day, ma'am :)
You too!
I have never worked with vinyl. This looks like a great project to start with. Thanks!
cute! thanks for the tip! I never find vinyl i like, now i can make my own!
Oh, earlier today I was looking at some cute fabric and wishing that it came as oilcloth, or wishing for some magic way to make it more water resistant... This is perfect, just what I need! Thank you so much for posting this =)
I have some iron-on vinyl but I haven't used it yet.
Thanks for the great suggestion (and tutorial!) -- we could always use more coasters around our house.
These are great! Thanks for the idea (and the instructions).
Great idea. Did you use the matte or the gloss variety?
Absolutely darling. As always, you simply inspire me.
Jess, Good idea starting with the coasters-they look great! I love the practically-instant gratification from small projects. (Did you borrow that cute cup from your neighbor??)
Cool! I have been wanting to work with some vinyl!
I love your blog.... you write often and you have terrific ideas! Thanks for sharing!
(PS I think I have a thing for the !!! today... yikes!)
Cute. Simple. Would make a great hostess gift!
Megan, good eye! Hee hee! That neighbor gave those glasses to me about a year ago because her husband didn't like them. :) They replaced these dollar store glasses with Crate and Barrel ones. I benefitted. :)
Oh, and I think this stuff is the gloss vinyl.
I will have to have some of this vinyl. You mentioned your heavyweight fabric...just how heavyweight is it?
Thanks, Lynn
Great idea - thanks! Also - that fabric is fabulous... I need some.
wow is this timely...I need to slip cover three 2'x2'squares...i use them as footstools, chairs, and my two year old uses themt o stand on when helo in the kitchen (ie washing dishes) they have gotten very dirty and I wanted to slip cover but with something wipe-able...do you think that this would be workable on a larger surface area?
what a fantastic product! Perfect for a summertime tablecloth.
okay my favorite thing yet- so I had to comment!
thanks! can't wait to try it!
very cool, i can think of so many great idead for iron on vinyl! -kb
What a great idea! I hope that Joanne's carries it. I'll have to find out. If not...I don't know what to do? Where did you get the vinyl from?
Easy Peasy Japaneesy. Thanks for the great idea!
So great and easy! I can imagine doing this for placemats as well.
They look lovely.
this would be perfect for making one of the hermes bags.
What a great project! I've been looking all over for this iron-on vinyl - thank you for sharing!
wahh.. amazing.. this is great.. Thanks!!!
Great idea!
I don't remember I sent this fabric to you, though.
Cool project! I'll have to see if I can find that around here.
If you can't find iron on, you can use thin regular vinyl and iron on adhesive stuff. Just make sure not to touch the iron to the vinyl or you will have a nasty sticky iron.
Those are WAY COOL! I will have to try them. Looks like an easy sewing project. I so want to learn to sew better!!!
47cats: The fabric feels the same weight as canvas. I think it's a linen/cotton blend actually.
thekateeffect: The bolt the vinyl stuff came on was only 17" wide, so probably not big enough for your project. Not sure if it's available in larger pieces. If yes, it should work great for your project. If not, try getting some oilcloth instead. Or do what Savannah is suggesting.
erin: I got mine from Vogue Fabrics. But I bet Joann has it.
Megumi: You did send it to me! Along with orange hippos, Miffy print, green trees, the reddish one with the lines, and some of your mom's traditional-looking prints. Pretty much any good fabric I have is from you. ;)
thank you!
I remember all the other stuff, but not this one. Of course it looks like Japanese.
I learned a new word, AKA:)
I'm back again to say... I made some! Thanks SO much for this tutorial -- they came out great.
You can see the ones I made right here. Thanks again for this post!
Fabulous idea! I've just spent the past half hour searching Etsy for cool coasters, maybe I should just make my own. Ten bucks though I can't get this stuff in Australia.
Love your blog. :D
Ooh, now I need to buy pinking shears as well!
another fabulous idea! Though I'm sure you're busy/have done it before...
Hello! You've been tagged :)
The rules are:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
I love this - if you don't mind, I'm going to link to this tutorial on my website...
You bet! Go for it.
Flibberty, thank you, but I just listed some things a couple posts ago, and I'm not an interesting enough person to have more just yet. But I'll work on developing additional weird things in my life so I'll have something to write about soon.
I used iron-on vinyl to make outdoor-suitable fabric when I couldn't find any oilcloth or similar that I liked. I found some great hibiscus prints in different colours, ironed on the vinyl and used it to replace the mouldy white vinyl and some amazing vintage folding chairs. Thankfully when I moved away they were purchased by a friend, so I know they're in a good home!
cool :). nice fabric and great idea. You simply rock with your ideas
I *so* would love to do an apron with that...
What a great idea!....I was thinking baby bibs? Not sure because you might have to do both sides because of sticky little fingers. I guess it would be the same with an apron only the sticky fingers would be bigger :0)
I've really enjoyed your blog so much!
Thanks!
Great idea!!
Ooh I have the same fabric!
Oh Geez. I love that fabric.
WOW that looks easy to make. Now if i could only find the iron on vinyl.
How interesting. I have learn't something new. I hope this is available in South Africa!
Thanks for sharing this info!! I recovered my dining room chairs this past weekend (beige fabric and a 4 yr old don't mix) and was thinking about using oil cloth until I read your blog. Instead of having to use oil cloth that didn't come in fabric I would use on my dining room chairs, I was able to pick the fabric I wanted and iron on the vinyl....ta da...easy to wipe off dining room chairs that aren't 'too' shiny! Perfect!
Ooo, glad to hear it, Tamara! Sounds great.
What a great idea i was looking for somthing to make for a gift .On the fourth of july this is just the ticket to make.Thank you for your tutorial .
These are beautiful!
and a great idea for a gift..
Wonderful post!
Cheers,
Eve
how does your machine foot not stick to the iron on?
i would love to know:-)
Uh, I don't know! Mine didn't have any problem sticking at all. I didn't do anything except sew! You tried it and that's what happened? I guess try googling your question. If it happened to you, it probably happened to someone else before.
thanks. what type of foot are you using, metal or plastic?
Mostly metal with a clear plastic rectangle in the front. Uh, a hybrid? If you click on the picture of it in the post, the photo will enlarge and you can see it.
thanks. it doesn't look like the plastic part on your foot would even touch the fabric so that might not be a factor. mine is metal. i'm stumped. i have to use tissue paper whenever i sew mine, its a pain.
thanks. i'll just have to search google.
Brianne-zam, in case you're still looking, this is on the website:
"If your sewing machine doesn’t glide over Therm O Web Iron-On Vinyl, and you don’t have a teflon foot, try putting a piece of tape on the pressure foot."
I can't wait to try these, soooo cooool :)
Oh I mentioned Iron-on vinyl to a lady at my craft store and she said it doesn't exist, it's impossible. Sigh... thank you for showing I'm not crazy and making this up! Now to go on a hunt for it(with this post printed out in hand if need be)and make stuff!
You can also use iron on vinyl for regular cotton fabric and iron it to both sides. It makes a nice stiffer fabric that you can use for makeup bags, coin purses or purses in general. Looks like desiger handbags! Which of course they would be...there will be no other one in the world! This stuff really is easy to sew on and I don't use a Teflon foot to sew it either. Great Projects
The fabric you used looks so cute.
Iron on vinyl coasters. Did you use batting, and I'm finding it hard to get it to sew on the vinyl. Any suggestions?
Sheila, I didn't use batting; the fabric was fairly heavy. Sewing worked okay for me, but I've also heard you can put a piece of tissue paper between your presser foot and the vinyl surface and tear it off after sewing, or put masking tape on the bottom of your presser foot.
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