A personalized t-shirt will make a lovely gift for kid's birthday. You can even make it for yourself. This is how I make my son's personalized t-shirt for his birthday last Sunday:-
Materials Required
A blank T-Shirt (ironed)
An iron-on inkjet transfer paper
Tissue Paper
A PC/Notebook
Graphic software
An inkjet colour printer
An iron and ironing board (or any hard and flat surface)
Note : Use iron-on for white fabric, if your T-shirt is light-coloured and choose iron-on for dark fabric, if your T-Shirt is dark or bright colour.
Steps
1. First, design the image you want using the available graphic software. Set the right image size so that it's not too big or not too small when printed on the T-Shirt.
Advice : You can have a look at the design of your children's t-shirt and from there you could somewhat determine the size.
2. Print a preview copy of the image on a normal A4 paper. To print preview copy, you need to choose "flip/mirror/reversed" (depending on your printer setting) so that the image will be printed backwards. Choose the highest dpi setting and correct paper setting.
Advice : It is advised that you print in full colour so that you would be able to see whether the colour comes out perfectly the way you want it. In my case, I printed it in grayscale mode just to save some ink:) I just want to see whether the size fits.
3. Once you are satisfied with the colour and size, print it on the iron-on transfer. Make sure you print it on the clear white side, and not the one that has grid line (oh, that's more of a common sense, I think). Let the ink dry thoroughly.
4. Then trim excess paper leaving 1/4" border around the image.
Advice : If you look at the photo below, the border is a bit too big. You can make it smaller, maybe half of it.
5. Preheat iron to highest cotton setting.
Advice : Do not use a steam iron. If you have on, switch of the steam setting.
6. Place the T-shirt on the hard and flat surface (in my case I use the ironing board). Make sure the T-shirt is straigten so that there is no wrinkle (esp on the part where you want to iron-on the design).
7. Place the iron-on paper with the image to be transferred face down on the garment in the desired position.
8. Cover the image with a tissue paper (the thin, onion like layer, where people used to make flower bouquet).
9. Place the hot iron onto the tissue paper (this is use as heat absorber so that you do not burn the transfer paper) and in circular motion and a light pressure, evenly work your way throughtout the whole image. Continously pressing the iron for 3-5 minutes.
10. Remove the tissue paper and let the paper cool down completely. In my case I waited for like 30 minutes.
11. Once it is cool down, peel off the backing paper slowly at a sharp angle..and Ta-Da! You've made your very own personalized t-shirt.
So, how easy is that? You can just make a personalized T-Shirt in a flash.
But through my experience, finding children's blank T-Shirt is not that easy. And you may have problem sourcing for iron-on paper too. Now, if you do not have the supply, we could help you...
At CMOG, we would be able provide you with these materials:-
| Item | Price |
| Blank T-Shirt (white only) | RM10.00 |
| Iron-on paper (together with instruction) | RM5 pr piece |
| Design | RM8 onwards |
| Printing | RM1 each |
IMPORTANT NOTE : Iron-on does not carry the same quality as silk screen printing. The colour might fade, or the image might peel off, depending on the printing quality, hot pressing and washing. Due to this reason, CMOG could not offer the end product i.e. the made-to-order personalized T-Shirt as we could not guarantee the quality of the product.
However, we could supply you with the material and design for you. The printing and ironing has to be done on your own. But should you insist on the printing part (as you may not have the facility) CMOG would be able to assist you, but like we mentioned, we could not guarantee the quality of the end product.
Despite this, we believe this easy to make personalized T-Shirt, just like any other personalized gifts, could make a wonderful keepsake for your loved ones.
Have fun making them!
Now wait, Inar also ordered a personalized newspaper and combo T-shirt for the birthday boy, herself and hubby. Voila!
Thanks Inar and Lyana, for your orders! Hope you and family are satisfied with our products and services...Feel free to give feedback so we can improve further...
