HOW TO: personalize a T-shirt with fabric markers

Flowers, chocolates and fragrances are traditional presents for moms on Mother’s Day.

If you want show her how much you love her, how much you appreciate everything she has done for you, if you are looking for a unique gift and want surpass all your mom’s gift expectations this year give your mom a gift she'll love by designing this personalized and easy to make T-shirt.

Supplies:

- T-shirt (be sure to wash and iron it before attempting this project) 

- Fabric marker (medium or fine tip, depends on how big your design is)

- Freezer paper

- Your design
- Washi or masking tape

- Soft Pencil

- White carbon paper, if you want to use a dark T-shirt (if you can’t find it, don’t worry at the end of this post I will tell you how to create your homemade white carbon paper)

Instructions:

Create your own design. You can find your image by simply searching on the web or create your own lettered graphic. Print or design on a standard paper sheet.

Place freezer paper inside the T-shirt, it prevents ink from bleeding into the opposite layer.

- For a white T-shirt: place your design inside your T-shirt and then use a pencil to trace on the front of your T-shirt. You can use also the natural light of your window: hang the T-shirt in a window, it allows you to see through the T-shirt to trace your design.

Use a pencil because if you mess up you can erase the pencil lines and redo them. You can’t fix mistakes when you’re using the fabric marker.

Once you’ve penciled everything in, go at it with your fabric marker. Start with the outline of each letter/design, and then fill the inside. Moreover, if you are good at drawing you can skip the pencil step and use the fabric marker.

For a dark T-shirt: place the white transfer paper with the whiter side down to your T-shirt. Now place your pattern on top, tape it to the T-shirt and trace your design/letters with a pencil.

Now you are ready to mark the design with the fabric pen.

During this process, protect your design with freeezer paper so your hand will not delete the design just transferred.

Remember you can add more marker strokes to make your design bolder if you desire.

Let the paint dry for 1 hour and iron the t-shirt from the backside to make it waterproof. (or follow the manufacturers instructions)

Tips:

- Don’t twirl or stretch the fabric while drawing. Precision and strong hand will help you trace a very clear design on your t-shirt.

- Practice a bit on some scrap fabric.

Have you not found the white carbon paper?

Don’t panic, I'll explain you how to make it and save money!

You need:

sheet of paper + white chalk

Print or design an image on a paper sheet.

Using the white chalk, cover the area of your image on the back of the paper sheet.

Tap the paper over the trash bin to remove any loose chalk.
Done! You are ready to transfer your pattern onto any pourous surface!