DIY T-shirts

Design T-rific personalized tees with the help of your computer

By Heather Camlot

When Julie Hunter, a Toronto mom of two, needed a gift for a bachelorette party and an activity for her daughter’s birthday party, she took matters into her own hands.

Armed with a computer, printer, transfer paper and iron, she created unique and tailored T-shirts for both occasions, and the results garnered nothing short of the widest smiles.

“My friend laughed harder than I have ever seen and loved the T-shirt and the joke behind it,” says Hunter. She printed Mrs. McSweeny on the shirt, referring to her friend’s high-school crush and not her fiancé.

Express your own style with a custom T-shirt you create.

Creating your own T-shirts is fun and cost-effective, not to mention incredibly easy.

Materials you’ll need

computer
scanner (optional)
printer
T-shirt transfer paper (available at office supply stores)
iron with no steam option
ironing board

Download our DIY T-shirt template and customize it with your own logo, image or pattern.

Picture perfect inspiration

Whether you’re creating a T-shirt for a special occasion or you want something to wear any day of the week, inspiration for that perfect picture is everywhere. Try scanning the following:

old photos -- for a family reunion shirt
cover art from a favourite album -- to wear to a concert
your own artwork -- for a new canvas to display your talents

Transfer paper will reverse the image on your T-shirt. Before you print, flip the text horizontally.

How to make your shirt

Be sure to scan at the largest size possible for the best rendition and then tweak your photos for a polished look. With a photo-editing program such as Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can

get rid of red-eye
crop images
adjust contrast and brightness levels

If you haven’t anything tangible you’d like to use, go to Microsoft Office Online or use Live Search to find clip art and image sites. You can also open a new Word document and type in a favourite poem, slogan or quote. Or combine multiple embellishments: there really are no rules when it comes to your style.

Follow the directions that come with your transfer paper to apply the image to your shirt.

Personalize the template

If the ideas aren’t coming, personalize the free T-shirt template provided. Here’s how:

Download and open the template as a Word document.
Use the Drawing Tool to edit colour, size, shape and even the image itself by adding and deleting elements.
Use the Text Box or WordArt tools to alter font, colour, placement and more.
Measure the area on the T-shirt you want to cover, and size your image accordingly. Word makes sizing simple. Just click on the image, click the format tab, look for the size tab on your toolbar, and adjust the shape, width and height.

On with the show

Once you’ve completed the design, test-print on regular paper to make sure the design looks exactly the way you want it. If your image has words, make sure to horizontally flip it in your editing software or printer program before printing. Make any other necessary adjustments. Then, at the highest quality possible, print onto a sheet of T-shirt transfer paper.

When the paper is dry, trim around the edges, lay the sheet face down on a wrinkle-free shirt, set your iron to its hottest setting with the no-steam option on, and iron the transfer according to transfer paper instructions. Let it cool, and then slowly and carefully peel off the transfer backing to reveal your ready-to-wear work of art.

Published July 2008