How to Make a T-shirt for Yourself and Your Friends

Saman made this is design as a birthday present for Erica and I turned it into an actual shirt, also as a birthday present for Erica.


The next few steps required:

• a blank, navy American Apparel ladies' T
• 8.5 x 11 freezer paper and a digital printer
• x-acto knife
• electric iron
• scrap paper and cardboard
• acrylic paint, brushes and fabric medium

From Saman's design, I created two stencils in photoshop. One for blue and pink, the other for yellow and white. Printed them out on freezer paper (the unwaxed side), along with a color guide.


John and I had some cold-pressed coffee & beer while I spent the next hour or so cutting out the stencils.



With the stencils ready, I prepped the shirt and paint. Stuck a piece of freezer paper inside the shirt to stop any paint from bleeding through, along with some pages from a magazine. All of the paints were acrylics mixed about 1:1 with fabric medium.

I did a couple tests on paper to make sure they looked right and worked together. Ironed the first stencil and put on a new layer of paint every couple hours. I let the whole thing dry overnight before starting the next layer.



I needed to heat set the first layer before doing the next, so I ironed the design while covering it with paper to prevent it from melting. Everything seemed to be going well. It was then that I realized that the second stencil no longer matched up quite perfectly.

John helped stretch the shirt to get it to match up as well as could be. There's a little warble in the final design, but sometimes that handmade aesthetic isn't such a bad thing.