Fandom T-Shirt

I saw a t-shirt I really liked and decided to "copy" it, (is this plagarism !!?) I just like the confused geek message

Now I didn't want to go to all the hassle of screen printing so decided to do it another way, by using a stencil.

If you wanted to make multiple copies of a shirt however you could have transfer the stencil onto a silk screen and use it that way, I only wanted 1 copy so I worked directly on the shirt

From what I can see this may be a viable alternative to messing around with Photosensitive Chemicals etc

The Photos are a bit small as I took them with my phone, should have used my posh camera for all of them instead of just the finished one

Materials

A T-Shirt (obviously)

Fabric Paint

Paint Brush

A Laminating Pocket

The Image you want to print

A Craft Knife

An Iron

Paper towels

Step 1: Find the Image You Want

I used google and then using the snipping tool on the computer transferred the image to a piece of A3

This image is fairly complicated, but then again I am a complicated kind of guy!

Step 2: Cut the Image Up Into Manageable Pieces

Because I only had A4 Laminating Pockets, I cut the image to fit inside

This worked pretty well as all the writing went in one and the picture in a second one

You could use just one half of the pocket if you want to be a cheapskate, however the image holds in place better inside the pocket

Step 3: Cut Out Using a Craft Knife

I used a very sharp X-Acto knife for this.

Hint cut the lines fractionally longer than on the image template to ensure the pieces you are going to remove come out cleanly, it saves a lot of fiddling about later.

Eventually you will get a template like above (this took me about 45 minutes for the whole thing (letters and Dalek))

Step 4: Fix Template to Shirt

Rip off one side of the Laminated Pocket position and iron onto the shirt (sticky side down)

At this point you COULD iron this onto a silk screen if you wished and make multiple copies

Step 5: Once Fully Ironed On, Paint

I put a sheet of A3 inside the shirt, to prevent the paint soaking through and used Permaset Fabric Paint which is water based and solvent free (not a deliberately informed or eco-friendly choicejust what I found in the shop) The Paint cost about $13 NZ but I have done 3 shirts so far and hardly used any!

I used an Artists Brush (because it was the first one that came to hand) any old brush will do.

I slightly wet the brush to thin the paint and make it easier to spread, and did 2 coats to get good coverage.

Step 6: Set the Paint

The instructions say to iron on cotton setting for 3-5 minutes -- so I did!

Step 7: Peel Off the Template

With a simple template (and a bit more care than I showed) you could probably remove the template and re-use.

I destroyed mine!

Step 8: And the Finished Product

I will probably give it another iron and hand wash the first time, but others I have made have stood up to normal washing machine abuse.

Hope you like it

All in all it took about an hour and a half to do (probably cheaper to buy one tbh!) but it was raining and I had nothing better to do (just don't tell my wife I said that!!)