My sister was graduating with her Master's degree so I wanted to make her the perfect graduation gift. I scoured the internet looking for cool Master's graduation gifts, but it left much to be desired. So after I stumbled upon the quote, " I was but the learner, now I am the master," I knew I had to make a cool Star Wars tee for her. It both celebrated her accomplishments and appealed to her nerdy interests. Hope you enjoy and may the force be with you!

Step 1: Make Front Design in Illustrator

Once I picked the Star Wars quote, "I was but the learner, now I am the master," I needed the perfect font. A huge thanks to Boba Fonts at http://www.dafont.com/star-jedi.font for the StarJedi font. I wanted Master to be the emphasis so I made the second half of the quote bigger and the first half all fit on one line. To reference the movie even more, I decided on yellow text.

Step 2: Make Back Design in Illustrator

For the perfect lightsaber design, I used this vector for the hilts (thanks Jackson Robinson at http://www.onelunglewis.com/lightsaber.html) and then drew two rounded rectangles. I chose red and blue to reference Obi Wan's and Darth's lightsabers (see I Am The Master). I then changed the gradient so it looked more like neon light radiating.

Step 3: Print Designs on Iron-On Transfer Paper

I used Jolee's Boutique Transfer Paper for Dark Fabrics since I bought a black basic tee from Target. This transfer paper is for inkjet printers and it recommends cotton fabrics. After checking all of your printer specifications and ink levels and colors with a test print on plain paper, feed your transfer paper to the printer and print each design.

Step 4: Cut Out Design

This part will take the most time. Use scissors to cut out the larger parts of the designs and use an x-acto knife for more delicate areas. You can leave a white border as I decided to do on the back design.

Step 5: Iron Your Design

To transfer your design, lay out your fabric on a flat hard surface. Then very carefully peel off the backing paper from the interface of your cut-outs. This will take quite a bit of time as well.
Next, use a ruler to line up your text on the front of the shirt. Then use the included parchment paper to cover your design. Follow the instructions from the transfer paper, approximately 40-60 seconds of ironing on high heat/ no steam for smaller designs.
Once the front is completely cool, (I waited overnight) flip the shirt over to iron on the back. I used a small ironing board so I would not re-iron the back. Carefully place the design with the backing removed on the tee and again cover with parchment paper and iron for 40-60 seconds on high heat no steam.

Step 6: Finishing Touches

To make this tee out of this galaxy, I hand-colored the hilts with a silver metallic fabric pen. I then used a blue glow in the dark fabric pen for the blue lightsaber and a white glow in the dark pen for the red lightsaber.