Unfortunately, I've been knocked down by the winter bug, during winter break! #awesome
Anyway, I couldn't let Chanukah pass without sharing this, just in case any of you have a last minute party and want to dress up your littles.
I promise, this was the easiest DIY project I have ever done! And not only is it easy, it can be completely customized to your liking: t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, sweater, any holiday, any saying, any picture, any colors: the possibilities are endless and it's all totally up to you!
My kids had Chanukah dress up day at their school and of course, I was just a little too last minute to find something coordinated, because, who doesn't send their three to school matching? So, DIY it was!
I found long sleeve shirts on Amazon, that wasn't without a challenge, but all was well in the end.
I used Avery iron on transfer printable paper. Just my personal opinion here-I don't love this product. I've used it a few times in the past and am never pleased with it's durability. However, I haven't seen any other printable iron on paper, so when you want a cheap and easy customized shirt, it gets the job done. Just don't be planning on your DIY shirt to be sticking around for years to come.
I bought the iron on letters and puffy paint at JoAnn Fabric. Tip: Look online for the products you want and you can search by store to be sure a local store has the products in stock when you go.
Wash and iron the shirts, and then you're ready to go.
For the iron on letters, you cut them out. Now, only the actual letter has glue, so you don't have to cut out the letter exactly, however, spacing will get harder if you leave too much plastic surrounding the letter.
I was somewhat confused because the plastic is what actually gets the heat directly and I was afraid it would melt! So I tested a small piece on the inside of one of the shirts and happily discovered it definitely does not melt. Just lay the letters right side up, and iron away. The directions are pretty self explanatory, just lay out in the order you want, and iron for about 12 seconds on the actual letters, and then flip the shirt over and iron the back side for another 10 seconds.
Let it cool before peeling the plastic away.
For your transfer, you can either use a pre-designed template, or you can create your own. You can do this through the Avery website, or I did mine on google docs. The only confusing part, on either site, is that the image has to be reversed in order to be ironed on the correct way. A lot of printers have this option of flipping the image, but mine did not. I found this tutorial which explains simply how to flip the image in google docs. It worked like a charm, and that's a lot coming from me!
Unlike the iron on letters, because the entire sheet is an iron on, you have to cut this out as close to your image as possible or you'll have some white overhang and it just looks tacky. Unfortunately I only discovered this after the first transfer. Good thing I had plenty of puffy paint!
Make sure to iron this on for a decent amount of time-I did it just like the iron on letters, but went over the front one more time. You must cool completely or the transfer will break apart.
Once it all cools, design with puffy paint.
I just put these shirts through the wash and discovered that puffy paint doesn't stay on the iron on transfer, rather it only sticks to the fabric, so keep that in mind when decorating!
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