Crayon Colored Shirt

By krivas in Craft Fashion

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I've been wanting to make a colorful shirt like this for some time. But, I didn't want to buy any special materials. So, I looked around the house and found a few simple things that I could use to make this colorful t-shirt and came across freezer paper and some crayons.

Step 1: Materials

You will need:
Crayons
White Cotton Shirt
Iron
Freezer Paper
Paper Towels
Craft knife

If you want to use a printer:

Tape
Printer Paper
If you want to make this bear shirt, I have included the PDF

Bear.pdf
Download

Step 2: Print or Draw Design

For this shirt, I printed my design onto the freezer paper. You don't have to print your design. You can draw something using a black marker and cut it out instead; it can something as simple as a heart.

For Printing: Since the freezer paper is thin, it probably won't go through the printer as it is. It will need to be taped to a piece of printer paper to give it more stability. Get a piece of freezer paper and cut it to be the size of your printer paper. Lay the freezer paper on top of the printer paper, plastic side down. Use long pieces of tape to tape the freezer paper and printer paper together at the edges. Print the outline of whatever design you will be coloring onto the paper.

Step 3: Cut and Iron

With a craft knife, cut the white spaces out, leaving the black lines being careful not to cut them.

When you're done cutting, get your shirt and place the freezer paper onto it, plastic side down. With your iron on the cotton setting (no steam), run it over the freezer paper for a few seconds until the freezer paper has adhered to the shirt.

Step 4: Color

Start coloring in each section with crayon. It is easier to color when the shirt is warm. If you're having trouble, warm the shirt with the iron but make sure to put something in between the shirt and iron, like a paper towel, so that the iron doesn't get dirty.

After you color, to remove excess crayon, take a paper towel and place it in top of the shirt. Iron it, then peel it away. Do this once or twice or until the paper towel comes back clean.

You will have to color each section at least twice in order to get full coverage.

Step 5: Finishing Touches

When you're finished coloring, peel the freezer paper off. Take a clean paper towel, place it over the entire image and iron one more time. To launder, use cold water and hang dry. If the color fades, just color it in again.

The method I used creates a design without lines. But, if you want lines, you can create a transfer instead. To do this, draw or print you design on the paper side of the freezer paper. Then, flip the freezer paper over so that the plastic side is facing you. You should be able to see your design through the paper. Take a black crayon and trace the design onto the plastic side of the freezer paper. Then, iron the freezer paper, plastic/crayon side down onto your shirt. Peel the paper off and the outline should have transferred. If it doesn't transfer well, try running the iron over the paper a second time. Have fun coloring in your design!