A Typographic T-Shirt: A Tutorial

Meow!!! I am excited to be a part of the Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy super fun Typography series. Make sure you visit her blog for awesome giveaways! The lovely Stacey asked us to use typography in fashion in whatever way we wanted. I had SO many ideas and it was really hard to narrow it down, but I finally decided to make pictures using just words! I love the idea that the words create the silhouette of the image, so no outline is needed! A kitty shirt for Ainsley and a Pi Shirt for Ethan… of course.

I have a tutorial below, so definitely check that out if you want to make your own. It is super duper simple.

Of course, when I asked Ainsley what picture she would like, her immediate reaction was “kitty cat”. I really don’t know why I bother to ask. To switch things up a bit, I had her draw her own little heart to add to the kitty. I feel like that really makes the entire thing personal.

If you can squint hard enough, you will see that the kitty is actually made up of tons of “meow” words… creating the shape of the cat.

I couldn’t leave Ethan out, and of course, he wanted the pi symbol. Remember his other pi shirt that I made him? Well, he can never get enough pi, apparently. His pi symbol is made up of a bunch of “i love pi” statements. Cool, right?

Tutorial

Making your own printed shirt is super easy. I used store bought shirts to make it even easier. You could certainly make your own… if you have the time (which I don’t right now). Also pick up a pack of tshirt transfer sheets. I don’t have a particular brand that I recommend, but the Jolees ones that I used work great!

Using a computer program of choice, create an outline of the shape and fill with words. Then, print in REVERSE onto your transfer paper, according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Funny story, I am useless at computers. Utterly useless. Kind of ironic since I am a blogger and pattern gal. Anyway, I decided that I would do this really cool project in Illustrator and it took me about 2 hours to figure out how to even open Illustrator…. so that idea went out the window. Perhaps, I will take a class or something, but in the meantime, I will return to my Atari and Gameboy.

ANNNYWAY, print out your shape and word paper.

Trim the shape, removing any outline you had.
(and if you are super fancy, you know how to use Illustrator and you could do this all in Illustrator… you fancy pants, you)

Lay your paper face down onto your tshirt, making sure everything is straight and centered.
Iron according to the manufacturer’s directions. Mine called for a super hot, no steam iron.
Iron until you are positive it has all transferred.
Carefully lift up.