How to Make Your Own Custom T-Shirts at Home
Make your own T-shirt designs at home without any special equipment. Customize your shirts with digital pictures, graphics and clip art. Personalize them with names, dates, sayings, phrases or your own custom artwork. Make homemade T-shirts for fun or design multiple T-shirts for family reunions, class field trips or family vacations.
Things You'll Need
- T-shirts, white or light colored
- Word processing software
- Printer
- Scissors
- Iron
- Iron-on transfer paper
Instructions
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Prepare the T-shirt for designing by washing and drying it as directed on the label.
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Upload a digital photo or scan a picture into your word processing software or desktop publishing program. You could also design your own graphics or use clip art provided in the software instead.
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Type phrases, sayings or personalization on to the design. Change the font style, size or color by varying the options in the toolbar at the top of the page.
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Go to "File" and select "Print". Click on "Properties" next to the printer you will use and then choose "Page Layout." Change the page layout to "Mirror" or "Flip Horizontally" and then select "OK". Print your design on the iron-on transfer paper.
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Use scissors to cut your design out of the transfer paper. Remove as much excess paper as possible without harming the design.
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Preheat iron to its highest setting; use without steam.
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Lay a T-shirt flat on a firm work surface such as an ironing board. Position the printed transfer over the T-shirt with the design facing down. Iron the back of the transfer paper until the design adheres to the T-shirt.
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Allow the paper to cool and then peel the paper backing away from the design.
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Tips & Warnings
Test the alignment of your design by first printing it out on plain paper.
Turn your shirt inside out when washing to prevent fading of the design.
