SuperMom Shirt Tutorial

Mother’s Day is just a few days away!  Hopefully we all have our gifts figured out, plans made for dinners and brunches, and cards all bought and signed (I don’t!  Aaaaa!).

In the spirit of the day I thought I would go ahead and follow up on the SuperMom Gift box I put together a couple of weeks ago. I made the gift box for a friend that just found it she is pregnant, but it would work great for a last minute Mother’s Day gift as well. Or maybe a fun Halloween costume?  So here we go – a quick tutorial for making the SuperMom logo shirt.

I was wandering around the craft store the other day and spotted this sun-activated dye that looked like fun.  They had these small packages and they seemed like the perfect size for experimenting.  And as it turned out, it wasn’t too hard to work with.

The dye is sun activated – whatever the sun hits takes on the color of the dye.  Any parts that are covered up are washed out and remain the original color of the fabric.  So the first thing I needed was a template.  I used Superman logo clipart, added the “mom” in the center, then cut it all out of vinyl.  It would work just as well to use cardstock or paper or something.  The instructions said you can use just about anything to create the image, but if I can use my trusty vinyl I usually choose that option 😉

Figuring the stability wouldn’t hurt and not wanting the chance of the dye leaking through to the back, I stretched the shirt over a piece of cardboard and taped it down on the back.  Then I used packing tape to make a rectangle to contain the dye, added the decal and spread the ink over everything.  The fabric still streched and moved a bit as I applied the dye.  Next time I would probably stretch the fabric even more before applying the dye.  And I forgot to “blot” it after spreading the dye.  The instructions said you would get more even coverage if you blotted it.

That’s was the hard part.  The shirt spent 15 minutes in the sun and you cold see the color of the ink deepen as time went on.  Once it was finished I peeled off the tape and the decal and tossed it in the washing machine.  Easy as that!

I can see a lot of possibilites using this method.  It was easy and didn’t take a lot of time, and unlike iron-ons, the dye simply changes the color of the fabric and the shirt stays as flexible and comfortable to wear as when you first bought it.  (It’s not just my kids that complain of “scratchy” iron-ons or appliques on their Tshirts and sweatshirts, is it?)  I don’t make many personalized shirts, but I would probably consider doing this again.
Do you have a favorite method for personalizing clothing?

*Nope, this is not a sponsored post.  I just wanted to share my little experiment.