How to DIY a T-shirt with Iron-on Transfer

Beat summer boredom by designing your own t-shirts with Cricut and Expressions Vinyl Heat Transfers. A fun DIY that you can personalize to your own style! Vinyl used was supplied by Expressions Vinyl. All opinions and stories are my own.

My kids have only been out of school for a couple weeks and already I am hearing the woes of “I’m bored” My kids are no longer in the littles stage and are actually quite self-sufficient and I LOVE that! My middle daughter has been asking me to teach her how to use the Cricut so she can make fun things too, and what better way to learn that to help her make her own t-shirt using iron on vinyl from Expressions Vinyl! (ExpressionsVinyl.com)

Supplies Used: Links are to similar items that can be found online for your convenience. 

• Cricut Explore
• Gold Easy Weed Heat Transfer Sheet
• Cricut Design Space
• Tshirt

We started in Cricut Design Space. I showed Allie how to search for images and let her browse until she found an image that she liked.

I was surprised at how quickly she created her design. I thought teaching her all of the steps would take quite a while but she caught on really quickly. After she called me over I showed her how to align the text and image so it was all perfectly centered.

This is her design. I guess it is a saying that one of her friends says all of the time. You can even use her actual file if you want to recreate it. Click here to open it Cricut Design Space.

Once the design was finished we measured the t-shirt so we knew how big to make the design.  I like to start the design three inches down from the neck and be about 9-11 inches in width across the chest.

Make sure when you are cutting out iron-on-vinyl to cut the design as a mirror image. This will cut it out backward, but it will right way when you iron it onto your shirt. 

Allie’s favorite part was watching it cut. It is pretty mesmerizing.

Carefully remove the gold iron-on-vinyl from the Cricut sheet that holds it while it is cutting, then comes the weeding. I love watching the design appear as the extra vinyl is removed.

Here is the finished design. Yes, it is backward. Remember we cut a mirror image since we are transferring it to a t-shirt.

We put a ruler down at the center of the neck of the t-shirt to use as a guide for placement. The ruler helps us center the design as well place it 3 to 4-inches down from the neck.

The back of the image is a little sticky, so you can place on the shirt and it will hold in place, but it isn’t there permanently until you iron it on. When the design is right where you want it, flip the shirt over and iron. Set your iron to the cotton setting with the steam turned off. Go over each area several times.

Turn the shirt over and slowly peel up the clear carrier short. If you come to a spot where the vinyl isn’t sticking to the shirt, place the carrier sheet back down and re-iron. You can do this as many times as necessary until the design is good and stuck.

Finally, give the shirt another good once over with the iron, just to make sure everything is good and stuck.

Allie’s shirt turned out super cute and she was so proud of the fact that she made it all be herself. Isn’t she cute?! I mean, isn’t the shirt cute?

She couldn’t wait to show her friend how she turned his favorite saying into a shirt. Now all of their friends are placing orders for their own.

Boredom solved! And something was learned in the process, even better. Take that summer!

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What is something you always say that you would love to see on a T-shirt? Share and leave a comment below.