Creating a Personalized White T-shirt

Hello everyone and welcome to this tutorial. Here you will learn how to create personalized designs for white t-shirts. Just follow these steps with the materials listed below. They show the process of making a design consisting of mainly text, however, when you are creating your own design you can include drawings as well. There are endless possible designs so simply have fun and create your own personal design.

Materials:

1 50ml Javana Tex Sunny Stoffmalfarbe bucket of paint in any colour you desire
1 White t-shirt made of 50-100% cotton
1 Sheet of Baking Paper
1 Iron
1 Ironing Board
2-3 Brushes of different sizes
1 Glass of water 250mL
1 Sheet of white A4 paper
1-2 toothpick(s)
1 Kitchen Towel
2-3 Paper towels
1 Container for water
Some pieces of newspaper
1-2 Plastic sleeves
1 Black Edding – Fat version (Optional in case you create a hand drawn design)

Step 1:

Firstly, place all of your materials in one area. This will help you later on, because you will be able to find all of the materials very easily. When thinking about the design you want to paint, you have 2 options. Either you can print a design onto an A4 sheet of paper or you can create a design by hand on an A4 sheet of paper. Regardless of which way you chose, the design must be in a fairly dark colour, because you will need to be able to see it through the t-shirt later on.

After creating a design using one of the two ways described above, take the design and slide it into a plastic sleeve. The plastic sleeves will prevent the paper from sticking onto the t-shirt while you paint over it.

Step 2:

Next, iron the t-shirt you are going to use before you start painting your design on to. The t-shirt should be white and should be made of 50-100% cotton. To iron it, use the appropriate settings for cotton on your iron.

Step 3:

Pull the t-shirt over your ironing board, so that the backside of the t-shirt is underneath the board and the front side is on top. Make sure that the t-shirt is stretched out so that there are no wrinkles. Wrinkles will make painting the t-shirt very difficult and therefore they are undesirable.

Step 4:

After pulling the t-shirt over the ironing board, lift the front side of the t-shirt and slide a piece of newspaper in between the t-shirt and the ironing board. The newspaper will make painting a lot easier for you, because it provides a steadier surface and will enable you to move the brushes smoothly. Also, the newspaper will prevent paint from leaking onto your ironing board.

Step 5:

Place your design, which has already been placed into a plastic sleeve, on top of the newspaper. You should now be able to see your design through the fabric of the t-shirt, like shown in the picture above.

Step 6:

Now you are ready to start painting. For painting you will need some paper towels to dry your brushes, a container with water to wash your brushes, a toothpick, the paint bucket and your brushes. Firstly, you have to open the paint and stir it using a toothpick. This will cause oxygen to interact with the paint and will make it thinner and easier to paint with.

Step 7:

To begin, make your brush a little moist by dipping it into the water and then drying it off on the paper towel. Afterwards you must slightly dip the brush into the paint bucket, so that you have a small amount of paint on the brush. Now paint over the design slightly and create an outline of it.

Step 8:

After finishing the outline you must simply continue painting over the design until you are satisfied with it. Possibly, you will possibly have to use multiple layers of paint. However, be sure to not use too much paint in one area, because this will slow down the drying process.

Step 9:

Once you have finished painting your design it must dry for approximately 24 hours. Be sure to leave the newspaper and the plastic sleeve in between the t-shirt and the ironing, because moving them could result in smudges. Make sure that you wash the brushes you used carefully, because the paint can dry very quickly and is very difficult to remove once it is dry.

Step 10:

When the 24 hours of drying are over you can lift the front side of the t-shirt and pull out the newspaper and the plastic sleeve. Be careful and peal off the plastic sleeve very slowly from the t-shirt, as it is most likely slightly stuck to the t-shirt. Once you have removed the two items, place a kitchen towel in between the front side of the t-shirt and the ironing board.

Step 11:

To iron the design, use the settings on your iron that are appropriate for cotton. Firstly, place a piece of baking paper directly on top of the painted surface. Using your iron, go over all parts of the design for approximately 5 minutes.

Step 12:

Next, take away the backing paper and go over the painted surface using the iron for approximately 5 minutes again. Once this step is completed you can wear the t-shirt.


Thank you very much for following my instructions. I hope you enjoyed making your own personalized t-shirt and that you will also have a lot of fun wearing it. If you had fun making your own personalized t-shirt, remember that there are countless possible designs and that personalized t-shirts are also very creative gift ideas. Hopefully you’ll do me the honour of redoing this tutorial soon!