I’ve been wanting my own black-and-white slogan tee for a while now, but I could never find one with a saying I liked. So of course the answer was to make my own. You can buy iron-on letters, which would be the easier way to make this tee, but I couldn’t find any large enough for my taste. With this method I was able to make my letters as big as I wanted (each is about 2 inches tall), and I could choose the font. It’s a little more work than the pre-made letter version, but totally worth it for a custom look. I might even have to make a few more with the other phrases that were runners-ups (“As If,” and “What Ever” were both high on the list).

Supplies:
Printable iron-on paper – I used Avery T-shirt Transfers for Inkjet Printers
T-shirt
Scissors
Printer
Ruler
Iron
Ironing board
X-acto knife (optional)

Steps:
1. Print out your letters on the transfer paper. Here are the ones I used:

The letters need to be printed reversed, but when I put my printer on the “t-shirt transfer” paper setting, it reversed my already-reversed letters (and it didn’t show it correctly in the print preview!). So I’m including both the regular and reversed versions, and I recommend that you make sure to do a test print on normal paper to be sure the letters are printed in the correct orientation.

2. Cut the letters out very precisely. This proved trickier than it seemed, because it is very easy to chip tiny edges of the ink off of the transfer paper, and then you’ll have areas of missing ink. I ended up having to re-print some of the letters to get them pristine. To avoid this problem, one solution would be to leave a white border around the black letters, but when I tested this, the transfer paper was off-white and obvious. So cut very carefully (using an X-acto knife might help), and re-print if necessary.

3. Use the ruler to help you line up and center your letters on your t-shirt, then follow the directions on your transfer paper to iron them on.


Cool, right? I haven’t washed my shirt yet, but I’m very happy with the transfer so far–it looks screenprinted.