How to Design Your Own Iron Ons

Printed t-shirts have been popular for years. Many people already know that you can purchase iron-on transfers to place designs on plain shirts, bags, hats and many other cloth items. Usually, by purchasing an iron-on transfer and a plain garment, you can choose how the image is laid out on the item. You can customize your gear even more creatively by learning how to make iron-on transfers of your own photos and designs.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer with a printer
• Photo-editing software
• Printable iron-on transfer paper
• Scissors
• Iron

1. Find a photo or other image that you like on your computer, and open it with photo-editing software.

2. Choose the option to flip the image. If your image includes any numbers or text, be sure not to skip this step.

3. Load the printer with your iron-on transfer paper.

4. Print your image onto the transfer paper. Click on the word "file" and select "print".

5. Use scissors to cut around the image as close as possible. Place the image, printed side down, onto your garment and iron it onto the cloth using a low-heat setting.

6. Peel off the paper backing when you are sure that the image has transferred completely.

Tips & Warnings

• For best results launder your garment before ironing on the transfer. After your garment is complete, wash inside out to protect the transfer.
• Do not use a laser printer with transfer paper.

References

• Lee Hansen
• Hewlett-Packard Iron-on Printing Tips