Last Minute St. Patrick’s Day Shirt
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I long to be one of those Mommas who dresses her kiddo in an adorable themed outfit for each and every holiday, but, unfortunately, it’s not one of my strong suits. Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s day and I realized this morning that I have nothing cute & green for the little guy to wear. I thought about rummaging the piles of picked over shirts at Target, but, this family is getting over a week of teething, ear infections and little to no sleep. I’m not going anywhere.
My solution to all of this? Make a DIY Shirt during nap time! I don’t own a cutting machine, so, I can’t do a cute vinyl heat transfer, but, I do have a few tricks up my sleeve when it comes to transferring ink to fabric.
Supplies:
- Ink Jet Printer
- Cardboard/Foam Board
- Painters tape or Masking tape
- Old gift card/credit card
- Spray bottle of water
- Flat work surface (I LOVE this cutting mat!)
- Iron
The first step is to create a cute design. For this project, I used a font and shape that I found in my Word Processing software. When I got the design figured out just the way I wanted, I printed it on a piece of printer paper.
I took the onesie I wanted to decorate and stuck a piece of foam board inside it to pull it flat, and to keep the ink from bleeding through. I then taped the onesie and the board down to my work surface. You want this piece to be pretty immobile for when you’re transferring. I trimmed the design from the paper and laid it on the shirt to make sure it fit well and was the right size. When I was happy with all of that, I got ready to print on the Sheet Protector!
Make sure when you go to do this step, you invert the image so it prints backwards. On my printer, I have to help “feed” the protector into the input tray, but once it grabs ahold, it prints on it just perfectly. When the protector comes through the other side, gently lift it up so the ink doesn’t move around and quickly take it over to your prepared workspace.
Mist the item of clothing just barely. I hold my spray bottle up high above the fabric and only spray once. You want a tiny bit of mist on the material, but, not enough for the ink to puddle or bleed. Then, flip your protector over and line it up EXACTLY where you want it before laying it down on the fabric. Once you lay it down, DO NOT MOVE IT! Take a couple pieces of your tape and very carefully, Tape the protector down to hold it in place. This is the trickiest part of the whole process!
Once everything is where you want it and taped down, I take the Credit Card and rub it over the plastic, very carefully, to help transfer all the ink I can. I’ve found it’s better to pick one direction; up and down or side to side. For this little guy, I moved my credit card from the top of the image to the bottom. When you think you’ve got as much of the ink transferred as possible, gently peel off your sheet protector and “Oooh!” and “Aaah!” over your adorable custom DIY Shirt!
I stick a towel in the shirt and run a hot hot
iron over it with NO STEAM! Hitting it with that high heat helps to set the ink into the cotton. The towel will help the ink not to seep through and into the back of the shirt.
The thing I love the most about this method of ink on fabric is that it has a bit of a rustic “lived in” look. The ink doesn’t fill in perfectly and I think it adds to the cute “vintage” factor. Now, the lifespan of these pieces varies – Some cotton shirts I’ve done this to have washed right out and others hold onto the ink. I think it probably depends on
the type of fabric you’re transferring to. This method is also GREAT for pillows and tea towels.
So, Voila! The next time you need a last minute custom shirt, you’ve got it covered! Happy Making! I can’t wait to see what you all come up with using this method!
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| Happy St. Patrick’s Day! |