Tutotrial - DIY Iron On Transfer T-Shirt

Since coming back to Rhode Island after two glorious weeks in San Diego for the Christmas holiday, the first thing Charlotte asks for in the morning is her cousin.  Where's Vivi, she asks me?  When the phone rings, she asks, "Vivi?"  It's really heart-breaking.  She is just obsessed with her older cousin and I so wish we could go back home so they could play together again.

So, inspired by this adorable cousin friendship, I decided to make Charlotte this photo t-shirt using some iron-on transfer sheets.

 

Want to make your own?  It's SUPER simple and fun.  First off, you'll need the following supplies:  

• iron-on transfer sheets (there are a lot of different brands on the market so shop around)
• ink jet printer
• white t-shirt
• iron

1.  Design your t-shirt image.  I created my design using Adobe Photoshop but I'm sure any program will work.  I simply embellished a photo of the cousins with a digital border frame that says "friends."  I resized the image to fit onto Charlotte's t-shirt and then flipped the whole image horizontally.  This creates a mirror image. 

2.  Print your image.  When you print your image onto the iron-on transfer sheet, make sure you change the printer settings according to the manufacturer's instructions.  Then trim very closely around your image.  (NOTE: I DO NOT recommend the brand of Iron-on Transfers photographed below.  It works fine but I noticed that it fades a bit after the first wash.)

3.  Iron your image onto the T-shirt.  Once you figure out where you want your image on the t-shirt, place the image face down and iron it on!  It is seriously that easy.  I personally set my iron to the cotton setting and ironed back and forth for about 3 minutes.  Just check the manufacturer instructions.

4.  Wear and Enjoy!  Viola.  Just like that, you have a totally custom t-shirt to show off to all your family and friends.  Charlotte kept point to her shirt and saying, "Vivi.  That's Vivi."  So ridiculously cute.  I showed my sister and since she loved it so much, I made another matching shirt for Vivi too.  :)

I also used this same technique to make Charlotte's birthday shirt to perfectly match her invites and birthday banner a few months back.

Hope this shows that you don't need a fancy die-cutting machine or a ton of crafting supplies to go DIY.  As always, thanks for stopping by!

Project 100 Update:  33 down, 67 to go.  Since I already had these iron-on sheets and they utilized my digital scrapbooking files, I'm counting the two cousin t-shirts as two projects.