Christmas Shirts For Her Classmates

Yes, I know, I know....Halloween was just yesterday and here I am writing a Christmas post.  Ugh, the nerve of me.  But before you get your undergarments in a bunch, hear me out.  This project is for my daughter's class' Holiday show.  'Trick love da kids' and so do I!

The class will be wearing red and green t-shirts.  The back of the shirt will have "Santa's List" of all her classmates.  The front of the shirt will say either 'Nice' or 'Naughty'.  How fun and exciting!  Let's get started..

Step 1.  I used my Silhouette to create the stencil for the back of the shirt.  I used their software to create the design.

Feeding the contact paper

Step 2. I used Contact paper as the stencil.  (I used to buy the 'official' Silhouette stencil paper, but Contact paper works just as great and it's cheaper!)  I cut the contact paper to fit my design (12" x 10").  Feed that bad boy through the machine.

Weeding out the letters

Step 3.  After it's done cutting out all of the words, 'weed' out the letters.  The weeded out parts are the parts that will be painted.  You essentially want a negative of your final design.

Step 4.   Cut a sheet of transfer tape to the size of your design.  Then lay the transfer tape over your design.

Step 5.  Remove the paper from the back of your design and lay it flat on the back of the shirt.

Step 6.  Peel away the top layer of transfer tape.

Removing the transfer tape

Ready to start painting!

Step 6.  This is the kid-friendly part of the project - PAINTING!  When I let the kids paint, I usually add a blue painter's tape border around the edge of the design.  That way they know not to paint outside of the border.

I used Tulip Soft Matte fabric paint in White.

Place a piece of cardboard or a manila folder inside the shirt.  This will catch any bleeding from the paint.

Apply two coats of paint.  Make sure to let it dry between coats.  (I used a blow dryer to help speed up the process.)

Paint coat #1

Paint coat #2

Step 7. After the paint is completely dry, remove the contact paper.  Make sure to remove all the little contact paper that's stuck in the letters with holes in them (A, E, O, B).

Set the paint by running a hot iron over it.  The back of the shirt is now done!

Step 8.   Now it's time to work on the front of the shirt.  I used the Silhouette to cut the fabric, too.  I used the software to create the two words 'naughty' and 'nice'.

Iron Heat n Bond to the back of the fabric

Remove the paper backing after the Heat n Bond has cooled

Place the fabric on the cutting mat and feed with in the machine

After it's done cutting, remove all the lovely letters

Step 9.  Take it to the ironing board.  I folded my shirt in half and ironed a crease down the middle of the shirt.  This is to help my center the wording onto the shirt.  I placed the word about 3-4 inches down from the collar.

Iron the letters into place.

Step 10.  I thought a zigzag stitch in a contrasting color would be cute.  So, I navigated my way around each letter.  (I know my embroidery machine could do it more efficiently, but..I haven't mastered that project yet.)

Here's the final product.

Front

Back