9 Steps To Making a Block T-Shirt

Hi!  Since the summer after my freshman year I've been making a lot of personalized blocks.  I noticed a lot of people liked them and wanted me to make them.  Honestly, its really easy and can be done in 9 short steps.  The blocks I am showing you today are a little bit harder.  I don't recomend making blocks with letters that are so thin, and I espeically don't recommend using this kind of fabric (it has sequins on it, on it requires a lot more attention than regular fabric).  So first we will go with what you will need.

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You will need a T-shirt (article of clothing you wish), the fabric you plan on using for the blocks, scissors, a pen or pencil, and iron and transfer paper.  The transfer paper is really easy to find (walmart) and is relatively inexpensive (about $8 a roll that will last forever). And finally, something you will feel comfortable ironing on.

Step One:

 This is super super important. Always iron your shirt and fabric before you even start the crafting.  Failure to do so will probably result in your letters not staying on, peeling off later or just wrinkled, none of which are good. So don't skip out on this step!

Step Two:

Take your transfer paper and lay the shiny side (folded up) face down.  This is the part that you be ironing.  Draw whatever you want on the paper.

Step 3: 

Draw your letters or whatever you want to be transfered on the paper.  It doesn't matter how many times you mess up on the paper, just draw over it because it won't show up.  Remember though that since you are trasnferring what you draw/write it will show up the opposite way on your shirt.  Luckily for me, my letters are always the same no matter how you draw them.

Step Four:

Cut whatever you wrote/drew out and put it on the fabric.  Make sure to put the side of the fabric you want showing down and iron on the back.  Here I am working with the sequin fabric, so the pretty part is face down.

Step Five:

For this fabric I always recommend using a towel or different kind of fabric over it when ironing so you don't melt the sequins or the fabric. Once you iron over that run the iron over the paper and only the paper, one time (as you can see in the image below). Those sequins can and will melt, and will most likely ruin your iron, your project and whatever you are ironing on.  If you are just using basic fabric the towel/extra fabric overlay isn't necessary.

Step Six:

Before you cut out the letters make sure to give them about 5 minutes to cool down.  This way the adhesive is bonded strongly to the fabric. Once its all cooled, cut out the letter exactly as you would want them on the shirt.  Make sure there are no jagged edges, the fabric you leave jagged has the material used to bond what you drew to the shirt and it will get stuck on your iron and leave a gross black mark on whatever you are ironing.  When they are done being cut, they should look like the picture below.

Step Seven:

There will be paper still left on the back once you cut it out.  Next you need to gently peel it off.  If you ironed it long enough it should peel off easily.  If not, no worries.  Just re-iron it, allow time to cool and then peel.

Step Eight:

Make sure that once all the of paper is pulled off of the backs to lay out all of the letters on the shirt the way that you would want them. Once you have it all lined up, take all of them off but the first piece.  Lay the towel/fabric over it and iron the letter on.  Iron it so that the bond to the shirt is strong.  Allow time to cool and check the edges to make sure they won't pull off. Once that is all secured go ahead and iron the rest the same way.

Once the letters are all on there, they should look like the picture below.

But that doesn't look complete, does it? Wellll.... that is why we do step nine.

Step Nine:

Puffy paint the edges of what you wrote/drew, this way you will have a nice clean outline. This will make the work you did look a lot cleaner, not to mention it will prevent the letter from peeling or falling off.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!

A little distorted because of my boobs, but the shirt isn't for me. Hahah. Anyway, make sure to turn the shirt inside out before washing it to make it last longer. I hope the craft worked out well for you, happy crafting!