Pirate Shirt

So, I try be to crafty every now and then. But being a graphic designer, I have high crafting expectations, and when my crafty projects don't end up the way I want them to, I get bummed out. But I have finally learned an important crafting lesson: Get the right (AKA: better quality) craft materials, and you will get the results you are after.

I am constantly frustrated by the lack of cute, graphic boys casual shirts available. And I don't want to pay $20 for a shirt Ryan will grown out of (or stain) in a couple of months. So I decided to start designing some graphic play shirts for him, and use iron-on transfer sheets and embellishments like paint markers and embroidery floss to add some character. The problem was I also was cheap, and got some crappy brand transfer sheets, so the transfer never lasted through more than one wash, and sometimes wouldn't even adhere to the fabric! And I got the crafty-blues.

But then I tried Avery brand Transfer sheets and all is well. They are great and I have never had a problem with them. Go Avery!

SO: I found this adorable pirate ship graphic for download on one of my favorite blogs: The Graphics Fairy (there is link to the site on the right).


I added an "R" the middle sail, and printed the ship artwork on to the transfer sheet, after mirror-flipping the image. I had picked up a $3 gray long sleeve shirt from WalMart for this project, I wanted the design to be subtle, so I left the ship black.




I cut it out, and placed it in the lower left corner of the shirt, like it was just sailing along. Then I ironed it on.

Now the fun part! I used fabric paint markers to add some colors to the flags of the ship. And that was it! It's cute and easy, and the shirt is gray (so hopefully it won't show stains too quickly.)



That reminds me of another transfer trick - if you have a shirt that has a stubborn stain on it, but otherwise the shirt is in good shape, just place a dark color transfer graphic over the stain, and it hides it perfectly! I did this with a cute white and blue shirt R got. He wore it twice before getting a spot of spaghetti sauce on in that refused to come out. So I designed a large Thomas the Train graphic that used a lot of dark navy blue, and placed it so the stain was covered! It's like a brand new shirt, plus it's a Thomas shirt , so it's new AND improved in R's opinion.

Can you find the stain?

Let's hear it for cute, cheap play shirts!!


-The Good Stepwitch