DIY Screen printing {Big Brother & Sister Shirts}
Do you guys remember my cute sister, Emily? She is the mastermind behind some of The Creative Mom’s most popular posts, including the Construction Birthday party (which is one of my most pinned posts!), A dozen days of Easter Eggs, and her always fabulous Spooky Halloween Dinner. Well, Emily just had a brand new baby- her 5th! Wonder woman, I’m telling you! And, at the very last minute, she remembered that she wanted some big brother and sister shirts for her older kids, and a little brother shirt for their new baby. So, of course, I stepped up to the plate and whipped up these SUPER easy shirts. I used my DIY Screen printing technique, which I showed you a while ago {here}.
If you’ve got a little one on the way, DIY screen printing your own shirts would be the perfect project for you! Or, can you imagine how cute it would be to surprise a little family with their own set of personalized shirts? You could even put names or ages on them… SO CUTE!!! The possibilities are endless with this technique. You don’t have to do brother and sister shirts, you can do any shape or word your little heart desires. And you really don’t even have to do t-shirts. Think of how cute this technique would be on a quilt, a pillowcase, or a sports jersey. You can do DIY screen printing on any fabric.
Would you like to try to your hand at DIY screen printing? Let me show you how!
You’ll need:
Reynolds Freezer Paper
Fabric Paint
T-shirts
Iron and Ironing Board
Electronic Craft Cutter- I love my Silhouette Cameo
Instructions:
- Start by cutting your words or shapes out of freezer paper. You don’t need to have an electronic craft cutter, just trace what you want to cut on the non-shiny side of the paper and use scissors or an exacto-knife. If you do have a craft cutter, make sure to stick the shiny side to your mat, and cut slowly. You’ll want to make sure your freezer paper is bigger than the item you’re cutting out, since you’re using this like a stencil.
- Once you’ve got your words or shape cut out, iron your freezer paper stencil on your shirt, shiny side down. Make sure you get it ironed on there good.
3. Then go ahead and start painting on your shirt. Make sure you follow the directions for your paint. I used DecoArt SoSoft Fabric Paint. The paint will seep through the shirt on to the other side, so put something in the middle of the shirt. I just used a piece of cardboard. I’ve used a lot of different paints, and I like this SoSoft brand the best because it stays soft, and seriously does NOT wash out. I’ve passed shirts down to younger kids several times, and after hundreds or washes, they still look great! Plus you don’t have to heat set the paint like you do for some fabric paints.
4. Once your paint has dried, peel off the freezer paper. Don’t worry, it doesn’t leave any residue. I’ve only ever used Reynolds Freezer Paper, which worked great, but I can’t tell you if a different brand will be as good.
And voila!!! You did your own DIY screen printing!!!!
I can’t wait to see all of my nieces and nephews (especially that chunky little baby) wearing their new big brother and sister shirts (and a little brother shirt too).
Don’t you love the way they turned out? They were super inexpensive to make, especially because we bought the cheapest shirts on Amazon– some of the sizes were only $1 each, which was awesome! Or you could totally use t-shirts you already have. And they really only took about half an hour to whip up! You guys can totally do this yourself… I’m telling you, it’s easy.
If you liked this post, please consider purchasing an item from my affiliate links. It doesn’t cost you any extra, but I make a little commission off of each purchase, which helps pay for this blog and support my family.
Thank you for reading. If you liked this tutorial, please check out some of my other Silhouette projects:
How to cut Fabric with a Silhouette
DIY Santa Pillow- How to use Heat Transfer Vinyl
How to cut on the Silhoutte without a mat
Do you have any other suggestions aside from using freezer paper?
Just found this tutorial on pinterest and tried it tonight. It worked amazingly! Thank you so much for posting this. I LOVE how the onesie that I made for my niece turned out. Never would’ve thought to use freezer paper!
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It is a simple way of printing, but it seems very efficient and to save some money that way. very good tutorial congratulations
These are adorable! What website did you download the “too much paper” text from?
Is freezer paper the same as wax paper? I don’t recall ever seeing freezer paper in the store, but I have plenty of wax paper and parchment paper in my kitchen. Love this idea! I’m going to make a birthday shirt for my LO.
by any chance do you remember the colors that were used for the little brother shirt?
How did you get the inner section of the letter like the Bs and o’s didn’t they love because they aren’t connected ?
I have not been able to find cute sibling shirts ANYWHERE without paying $15-20 per shirt! I’m definitely going to try this now! We were hoping to have some ordered before Christmas so this is prefect! 🙂
I found shirts all sizes- onesies to men’s large at Hobby Lobby. Lots of colors too.
I tried this and one suggestion I would make is don’t use wax paper as it doesn’t stick very well esp if the stencil is detailed. Use contact paper instead.
I love you for doing this for me. They’re incredibly cute. I need to send you a picture! Alex especially loves his!!
This is so cute! Two questions….what font did you use on these? And can you use the same freezer paper twice or more, like if I’m making a bunch of t-shirts with the same design?
Hi Emily,
The font I used is called “too much paper”. And once you use the freezer paper, you cannot use it again. Luckily the freezer paper is super cheap, so you don’t have to feel too bad about using too much of it.
Thanks for reading!
Natalie
Nice site about t-shirt degin i am apprentice this.
Thanks for this. I’m getting ready to have another baby so the timing is perfect! Just stopped by after seeing you on make it and love it. Congrats on that!
YAY for new babies! I’m so glad you stopped by, and I hope you’ll keep visiting!