Design Your Own T-shirt!

By Karen May-Free

T-shirt decorating has come a long way from when I was a kid in the 80s. Gone are the days of puff paint and full sheets of inflexible adhesive glittery unicorns. Now we can use our own printers to print out designs. We can embellish any design with embroidery, beads or gems. Premade designs come as heat soluble ink transfers instead of vinyl stickers. Fabric paints now come in markers that dye instead of peeling away after washing a few times. It’s a good time to turn a plain shirt into something more fashionable.

I happened to find a booklet of T-shirt transfers while in the craft section at the Green Valley Book Fair and there were a bunch of designs in it that I liked. This is just the first of many designs from this booklet that I’m going to make for myself.

The starting point of any T-shirt decoration is read your transfer directions! Not all transfers behave the same or require the same application techniques. Some say that irons with steam are OK, others do not. Some require a press cloth, some need longer pressing time. Read all the instructions that come with your transfers before you start, and make sure you’re not missing any crucial supply, tool or step. Next, wash your shirt! You don’t want whatever sizing is in your shiny new shirt to interfere with your transfer.

When your shirt is clean and dry, follow your instructions for application prep. For mine, I needed to put a towel inside to make sure the transfer did not bleed through to the back of the shirt. Preheat your iron to whatever setting your transfer calls for. If you will need another press cloth for between the iron and transfer, make sure you have one handy. If you need to trim around your transfer, do so before you put it on your shirt.

Next, position your transfer. I’m putting my script front and center, with a star accent. There are other designs in this book that are meant to go up the side of the shirt or across the back. Your T-shirt should be your decision—put your design where you want it!

Apply your iron! My transfer needed constant heat for about a minute. Make sure to move the iron back and forth—don’t let it sit and burn your shirt!

Turn off the iron, remove your transfer and take a look! These were ink transfers and turned from a brownish paper to a nice blue on the shirt. If your transfer didn’t stick, you may need to go over it again with the iron. If it’s ready, add whatever other embellishments you want. You can stitch around words, embroider, add some rhinestones—whatever you think will make your shirt (and you) look good!

Karen is a blogger and crafter who has lived in Charlottesville for 6 years after transplanting from the Shenandoah Valley. While not working or attending classes at PVCC, she blogs about her life at Precision Indecision and about crafts at CraftyKix.