T-Shirt Memorabilia Keepsake Wall Hanging- First Time Author

The T-Shirt Memorabilia is one of the greatest ways to show and share all of your memories. This is a very neat, organized, and fun way to remember past events. I believe the best thing about this specific instructable is that it is simple but still has an awesome outcome. Everyone can do it! If you are someone who has random shirts and materials around your house then get ready to get creative and make something awesome out of them.

My instructable can solve many problems that you might have at your house. Do you have a lot of old shirts laying around that aren’t in use? Don’t put them to waste, use them in your instructable! That was one of my main inspirations and goals for this project. Another problem that this can solve is finding a creative way to share your memories. I have been to graduation parties where people use just pictures, but those can get ruined very quickly. Putting shirts together will last forever. Along with putting them in frames they will be extra protected. I wanted to do this project because I want to show my memories of my hometown Westlake. I had a bunch of shirts and I wanted them to go towards good use and this was one of the ways I thought of.

In addition, to wanting to make this project I needed to know who I wanted to make it for. Who were going to be my major targets for creating this? After seeing older relatives graduate I decided to create something that someone who has accomplished a major spot in their life could cherish forever. I wanted to target graduations of people and major accomplishments. People all over the world should try this project. You can get so creative and just have a blast. Family members can help and it will really be just full of memories. Its extremely easy and I can not stress how good it will look! If you take the time others will see the time and love put in to this awesome project!

Step 1: Materials

The materials for this project are very simple and easily accessible around your home.I first went out and bought some special fabric scissors, then I needed more glue for my hot glue gun so I purchased that, and finally I got a frame to put the t-shirts in. All of these products together were only $28.00. I already had the shirts and hot glue gun at home. That's a major tip to find your own old shirts to use for this project. One, it will mean more to you. Two, it will be way cheaper to make because shirts can get expensive.

Step 2: Cutting and Cropping the Shirts

First off, to start this project you are going to need to gather an assortment of t-shirts. This is the easiest material to cut up as I learned. They can be as random or as specific as you want to a certain topic. Personally, I chose the topic Westlake (my hometown). Next, you want to start with one t-shirt. You are going to cut along the perimeter of the shirt so that only the front of the t-shirt is cut out. For this part of cutting it doesn’t need to be as neat, but I would make sure you give yourself a ton of space! Continue this to all of the shirts you are using.

Step 3: Ironing the Shirts

Secondly, we need to make sure all of the shirts are flat with no wrinkles. We will be ironing them. First, let the iron warm up and be very cautious because they can get very hot. Then go over the shirt at a medium pace making sure the whole shirt is flat with no bumps or wrinkles. After this is done do not bunch the shirts up just leave them laying over a chair in a pile so they stay looking good!

Step 4: Put Your Shirts Into a Collage

Third up, is you need to figure out what shirts look good together and which ones you 100% want to use. What I did was laid them on the ground and folded them over to see what they would look like in the frame by each other. By doing this you can figure out which ones will be absolutely perfect. If you want to remember which ones were good together you can use safety pins to link them together just like I did. Also, keep in mind of what logos and wording you want on your memorabilia. In addition, to finding out what logos to use I discovered that gluing all of the shirts together was going to be close to impossible. I decided to go to the store and purchase a frame and put the shirts in that.

Step 5: Cropping the Shirts to Smaller Size

Now that you know what shirts you are going to use you need to crop the t-shirts so that they fit on your base of paper. This is where if your cutting skills are better it will work. You want to make ends as straight as they can. Leave only some room of extra shirt, unlike step 1. Later on we will only have what you want to show but in order for that to happen you must leave some space. Cropping also lets you have more shirts in the frame.

Step 6: Glue the Edges Together

Next up, with that extra space and uneven edges something needs to happen. So, you need to hot glue the edges together. What you need to do is fold in your wanted amount and if it helps mark very lightly with a sharpie. Unfold and then start applying the glue. After push pressure and make sure it is to your wanted size. Do this to all of the sides that are needed to be folded.

Step 7: Glue the Shirts to the Paper

We are ready to assemble the t-shirts to the piece of paper. I used the piece of paper that came with the frame. What you do is apply glue to the back of your shirt. Then to your wanted spot push down and around on the glued down area. I know as a fact you are going to need to reapply and add more glue. So on areas where the shirt is sticking up or not secured keep putting glue. Do this to all of the shirts and you will be golden.

Step 8: Clean the Glass to the Frame

Finally, we need to assemble the paper with the shirts into the glass frame. Carefully clean the glass piece so that your memorabilia is as clear as it can be. Then you need to place paper into the frame. Make sure it is smoothed out and and there are no bumps. Put the piece of cardboard back in and make sure it is very tight. Push in all the clips on the side.

Step 9: Set Your Memorabilia Up

Now it's time for you to get creative! You can hang or stand up the frame where ever you want! If it is for a public area or your house it is perfect either way.

Step 10: Summary

During my build of my project I learned a lot! There were definitely a lot of ups and downs, good and bads to my instructable. One of the major challenges I had was gluing all the shirts. My initial thought was to crop shirts and glue them together. With the scrap pieces I practiced and it really was not working out. I wanted this to turn out well, so then I started thinking. My mom and I decided to put the shirts in a frame. We would glue them onto a piece of paper and then put them in a nice, neat, orderly frame.

In addition, to finding ways to problem solve I was taught a lot of new stuff. Working with the glue gun I learned it hardened very quick, so I had to glue down at a fast rate. This challenges was not major but it was a good learning point. I was new working with the iron board but soon enough I was able to get the hang of it while still keeping my safety in mind. Something that took time was figuring out how to place all of the shirts. They needed to be visible but, needed to correspond with the other materials. To conquer this problem I did a lot of moving and cutting so that all of the shirts would fit perfect. By doing this I also had to get creative by using smaller icons on the shirt. Like the small demons football was a perfect size and fit. All I had to do was get creative.

My mom helped me the most with the project. She was the one who took me to the store to purchase the materials I did not have at my house. She also taught be how to use the iron board correctly. At first I was ironing very slow, but my mom showed me how to do it efficient while still making the shirt look good. When I was working on it if I needed her to take a picture she would be more than happy. This was very helpful and I greatly appreciated it.

In conclusion, I strongly suggest that you try your own t-shirt memorabilia at home! It is a way to show your love for something in a new way. If you have an bumps in the road or challenged then just remember to get creative. Hopefully, all of these directions were helpful and created you your own memorabilia!