How to Make a No-Sew Dog Portrait T-Shirt
Use Your Favorite Pet's Portrait to Create a One-of-a-Kind T-Shirt
Oct 26, 2009
Capture your favorite dog's personality in a t-shirt portrait that takes less than an hour to make - no sewing required! Iron-on transfer paper makes it possible.
Show the world how much you love your dog by wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with your pet's portrait. You can make one for yourself or as a birthday or holiday gift in less than an hour.
Supply List for a Dog Portrait T-Shirt
- Image of your dog in a pose you like. The image can be a photo, a sketch, a painting – anything that can be scanned or loaded onto a computer, then printed on an ink-jet printer. Since you will be printing the image in a large size, it needs to be high resolution.
- One white or light-colored t-shirt. (This technique works well on sweatshirts, too.) Transfer paper works best on cotton or cotton/polyester blend fabrics. Knit fabric with pronounced ribbing isn't good for iron-on transfers, because the image can split apart when the ribs move.You can do transfers onto dark t-shirts with special transfer paper for darker shirts. It’s good to use an inexpensive shirt the first time you try this, so you won’t have to worry about making mistakes.
- One sheet of iron-on transfer paper.
- (Optional) photo-editing software to crop and edit your image.
- Color ink-jet printer.
- Iron.
- (Optional) Doggy embellishments such as fabric strips, stamps, buttons, or charms.
- Flat wooden ironing surface covered with a pillowcase.
Step by Step Instructions for Making a Dog Portrait T-Shirt
Putting your dog's portrait on a t-shirt takes just a few steps.
- Edit the image. Depending on the software you have, you may be able to fix flaws in the image, change its size and shape, add words, create interesting visual effects such as giving it an old-time sepia tone or making it look as if it was painted in an Impressionist style, or alter it in any number of ways. When you use transfer paper, the image that ends up on the t-shirt is a mirror (reversed) version of the original image. To make the dog portrait appear properly on the t-shirt, the image must be flipped so it prints in reverse. This is especially important if your portrait includes words. You can flip an image either with image editing software, or through the printer settings box on most printers.
- Print a test picture on regular paper to make sure you like the way it fits onto the t-shirt before you print a final image on expensive transfer paper or printable fabric.
- Print the final dog portrait in reverse on an ink-jet printer. Let the image dry for 30 minutes before ironing.
- If needed, cut out the image, leaving about a 1/4” border around the design.
- Remove all water from the iron and warm it up thoroughly to the heat level recommended by the manufacturer.
- Cover a flat wood surface with a pillowcase and iron the pillowcase so there are no wrinkles. Lay the t-shirt on the ironing surface and iron it as well to remove any wrinkles.
- Position the transfer on the t-shirt with the image side face down.
- Iron in a circular motion all over the portrait, applying firm pressure and making sure every part of the image gets at least 15-20 seconds of heat, especially the edges.
- Immediately remove the transfer paper. Your dog portrait is now ready to wear or embellish.
Enhance the Dog Portrait by Adding Embellishments
Sometimes the most enjoyable part of making a portrait of your pet is adding the little details that make it unique. You might try stamping paw prints around the t-shirt’s hem with fabric paints, or sewing dog bone charms to the dog’s collar. You could also print another sheet of iron-on transfer paper with small dog-themed images, then cut them out and iron them onto the t-shirt around the main portrait.
However you choose to embellish your dog's portrait, have fun!
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The copyright of the article How to Make a No-Sew Dog Portrait T-Shirt in Clothing Design is owned by Christine Mann. Permission to republish How to Make a No-Sew Dog Portrait T-Shirt in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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