Easy vintage spring showers shirt!

Last week while making the favors for my son's Ninja themed party I dug out a pack of Printable Iron-On Transfer papers that I had purchased a year or 2 ago and promptly never used. For my son's party I made some ninja headband things (not sure what the proper ninja term for such a thing is) I used a Lego Ninjago Logo that I found on google and put it into PSE (photoshop) to add each boys name. They turned out cute. The image transfer was soooo good I decided to try it for a shirt for my daughter. I had already pinned several sites that offer "FREE Printable Images" (free is the key here) so I searched for one that would work with a pink shirt she already had & is close to outgrowing (if it didn't work well I didn't want to waste a new shirt).

Supplies needed:
Color ink printer
Iron On Dark Tshirt Transfer paper (for ink-jet printers) - *there is also a version for white/light shirts too.
Scissors
Iron
Image you want to use
Plain shirt/dress/skirt, etc to put it on.

This is the image I picked from Free Pretty Things For You. (I LOOOVE her site! Adorable images, free, & great ideas - thank you for sharing with us!) I put it into PSE to resize it for a shirt. The graphic isn't perfectly sharp, but its still usable (besides my daughter moves so fast most of the time its not like anyone can tell the difference).

Once I had the image re-sized I put the transfer paper in and printed it out at best quality.  I used this June Tailor Dark T-Shirt Transfer paper (they also make one for light/white shirts too).

Then I cut out around the image. Following the EASY directions on the package - I turned the iron on low (NO STEAM), took the paper backing off the image (very carefully, the vinyl type image can tear), positioned it on the shirt, layed the included parchment paper over it, and pressed down firmly for 20seconds (lifting iron up to move to get the whole image on), then for another 1-1.5 minutes ran the iron over it to make sure it was all set.  That's it! DONE! So fast & easy. I spent more time searching for the right image than the entire rest of the project.

Now I waited to blog about this until AFTER she'd worn it & I had washed it. When it came to wash it I soaked it first in a bucket with white vinegar and water for a few hours - do I know if it helped, no but I thought it was worth a shot to hold the colors in. Then I turned the shirt inside out, washed on cold & hung to dry. I did have to re iron the image (w/ parchment paper) to get out the wrinkles, but it worked so well! Would I do these to sell - no. But if you need a shirt to go with a 1 time only occasion that your kids won't need again (think theme days at school or holidays) that you want something unique or custom for that is cheap, quick and easy this could be a project for you! Plus there is no sewing involved for my friends that don't know how to sew (or have time to).

**I also want to note that I also did a shirt with a ninja image for my son for his party and the red from the headband bled allover the face, so I would be careful about using red colors next to white, but a busy image like the birdy above worked great!

If you try this & it works for you let me know! Or if you need some help feel free to leave a comment - I'll see what I can do to help you!