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Tutorial: How to Use Pressing Pillows in Your Heat Press

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Heat press users will know that some items are more difficult to press such as infant bodysuits, shirts with pockets, or items with zippers or thick seams. In the past, I’ve folded a hand towel and placed it inside the garment that I am pressing a design onto. This method works okay, but I’ve had some lifting on a few of my designs because the pressure was not even. I recently found out that there is a better method – using heat pressing pillows. Lou, the inventor of the Tee Square It (which I reviewed here and here), also manufactures sof-fusion heat press pillows. His company, Heat Press Essentials, graciously provided a set of pillows to me to review in this post.

How to Use the Sof-Fusion Heat Press Pillows

  1. Adjust the pressure by turning the pressure adjustment knob on your heat press towards the minus sign (or similar, depending on your model). My heat press model is a PowerPress which I picked up on Amazon here. It works great, I’ve never had a problem – besides some typos, LOL! Tutorial: How to Use Pressing Pillows in Your Heat Press - Great for Silhouette or Cricut crafters - by cuttingforbusiness.com
  2. There should be about a half inch gap between your heat press pads when the heat press is locked down. Tutorial: How to Use Pressing Pillows in Your Heat Press - Great for Silhouette or Cricut crafters - by cuttingforbusiness.com
  3. Insert the heat press pillow inside the garment to be pressed and pre-press the garment for a few seconds. Tutorial: How to Use Pressing Pillows in Your Heat Press - Great for Silhouette or Cricut crafters - by cuttingforbusiness.com
  4. Add your design and press at the necessary time and temperature with a teflon sheet.

The pressing pillow set I received from Lou has 4 different pillow sizes: 6 x 6 (infant, toddler, and bags), 5 x 16 (sleeves and pant legs), 10 x 10 (kids and smaller adult garments), and 15 x 15 (large adult garments). The pillows are reusable, made with a foam core, and covered with teflon material. They can be purchased at this link on Amazon. If you press a lot of items in your Silhouette or Cricut business, I think the cost is reasonable because it makes difficult jobs easier.

If you don’t have a heat press yet, or if you are wondering if you need one – hurry over to this post.

Tutorial: How to Use Pressing Pillows in Your Heat Press - Great for Silhouette or Cricut crafters - by cuttingforbusiness.com

Rachel Goodacre Simon

Wednesday 30th of August 2017

Thank you for all the advice,so appreciated.

Christine

Thursday 31st of August 2017

My pleasure!

John in Philly

Thursday 8th of October 2015

Our lesson learned was that saving money by buying the pillows that do not have the teflon pillowcases means a battle trying to slide the pillows into a garment or into a pocket. Research shows that Silnylon ripstock is slippery and when we get around to it, a set of Silnylon pillowcases for the pillows are on the todo list.

Please use a time machine next time to get the information out before we goof it up. (smile)

And yez, amuzing typoz.

And you are so correct, if you do not have a heat press you are doing it wrong!

Christine

Thursday 8th of October 2015

Hi John! Thanks so much for your wise words from experience. I have actually only ever used the teflon ones, so I don't have anything to compare them to. I don't have a time machine handy, but I will look into a crystal ball - travels easier! Smiles, Christine