Introduction: DIY: Make a Sparkly Monogrammed T-shirt

About: Fairgoods is an online shop that sells a curated selection of accessories, housewares, apparel, decor, and type — with a focus on goods that use type. For more DIYs, visit our blog: blog.fairgoods.com.

Make your own monogrammed t-shirt using type!  

Step 1: What You'll Need

  • A letter from your favorite typeface.  This tutorial uses Kewl Script.
  • Cotton shirt
  • Scissors
  • Tape
  • X-ACTO knife
  • Wax paper
  • Metallic fabric paint and glitter acrylic paint
  • Pouncer brush
  • Paint tray

Step 2:

Choose a typeface. We used Kewl Script. Since this font will be used for a monogram, we made sure to choose one with more “bulk.”  We printed out a few different sizes of the font until we found the right size.

Step 3:

Tape the letters to a table, and tape pieces of wax paper (glossy side down) on top. We traced the outline of each monogram, and then taped that tracing to a surface.  We used an X-ACTO knife to cut out the monogram from the freezer paper. 

Note: Make sure to keep the pieces from inside the letters.

Step 4:

Tape the monogram on the shirt while being worn to get just the right placement. Once the monogram in the right place, tape the outlined portion of the monogram to the shirt.

Step 5:

With a warm, dry iron, press the freezer paper to the shirt. Place the inner pieces of the letters in the right spot, then press those too. Make sure to press the freezer paper well to ensure the paint won’t leak under.

Step 6:

Take your pouncer brush and gently dab on your fabric paint. As you can see, the paint goes on transparent, so you will have to do several coats. We ended up doing about five coats of the gold paint, and two coats of the glitter paint.

Step 7:

Once the paint is completely dry, very carefully and slowly pull the freezer paper off the shirt, keeping your finger on the edge of the painted sections while separating the fabric from the paper. (We love that the lines ended up being really crisp!) 

Step 8:

And you’re done! This worked great with the metallic paint alone, but the girls loved some added sparkle with the glitter.