How To Make a Lightning Bolt Shirt with Transfer Paper

Greetings, my crafty-loving friends! Want to make something for your kids today? Quick and easy? How about a shirt with an iron-on design? Yes? Ok, good. I'm glad you said, yes, because I really wanted to show you what I made for my preschooler. A couple of months ago, I was watching the movie Meet The Robinsons with Mac. Have you guys seen that movie? Love that movie. While we were watching it, Mac noticed Wilbur Robinson's lightning bolt T-shirt (the son of Lewis) and asked me to make a shirt like that for him. Well, of course I had to oblige!

Wilbur has the black shirt on

source

You will need:

- Ink Jet Hand Iron Transfer Paper for Dark Fabrics

- black t-shirt (Hobby Lobby sells them for about $3)

- iron

- ink jet printer (not a laser printer)

- this lightning bolt PDF

Before we begin, there's a couple of things I need to let you know about making the lightning bolt shirt. First of all, make sure to use transfer paper for dark fabrics, if you plan to iron the image onto a dark shirt. The image will not show up correctly if regular transfer paper is used. Got it? Ok, good. Next thing - this project can only be done with an ink jet printer. For real. So, if you have a laser printer, like we do, I recommend finding a friend with an ink jet printer and using theirs to print the image onto the transfer paper. Ink Jet transfer paper will not work with a laser printer. It will melt inside. So don't do it! Laser printer transfer paper is available on Amazon, BUT in order to get the image to adhere onto fabric, a super fancy and expensive ($200) heat press machine is needed. Irons will not work. Frustrating, I know. Because of this, I recommend finding a friend with an ink jet printer, like I did. (I have nice friends.)

Due to copyright issues, I chose to vary the lightning bolt slightly from Wilbur's shirt

To make this fun shirt, print the Lightning Bolt PDF onto a sheet of transfer paper, cut out the image, and iron it onto a clean (duh), pre-washed t-shirt. Be sure to read and follow the ironing instructions from the transfer paper package closely. Usually, the shirt needs to be washed and dried again after adhering the image onto the shirt before wearing, but you need to wait 24 hours after transferring the image before washing it. Crazy, right? Anyway, following the instructions for image transferring is important, but the results are well worth the small amount of effort it takes. 

And now, my friends, you have a super awesome shirt for your kids. This usually results in feelings of shock and awe from the children after they have realized that you have made this for them....all by yourself...well, maybe...

Ha ha!