Wednesday, June 9, 2010

old book page t-shirt tutorial

Let me preface this with the fact that I was going to blog this as a "FAILED" tutorial, but then I changed my mind. Why? because I figured that though I wasn't super happy with the results, it COULD be done better by someone else, on a different shirt. I loved the IDEA of it, I just thought the execution failed because a few different mistakes I made.... (like choosing the wrong color shirt).

Materials needed:
Plain shirt (white or very light, unless using special transfer paper)
Photo Transfer paper
Old book page
scanner/printer
scissors
iron
towel
1. Scan the old book page and print it on a piece of photo transfer paper. (MISTAKE NUMBER ONE: not realizing that because I was using the reg. kind of transfer paper that this would become see-thru when ironed on, not opaque.....)
2. Place the t-shirt on top of a towel (its says to in the paper instructions).
3. cut up the old book page photo paper into small geometric shapes.
4. lay them FACE DOWN (I almost messed this part up) on top of the t-shirt. follow the instructions on your sheet on how long to press down, etc.
5. Iron down and then remove the paper backing.
DONE! My mistakes include: doing it on a tan shirt (the contrast is better in the photo than it is in real life), not cutting off the white outer edges before placing the pieces on the shirt (this left a clear strip on each piece.... I had thought it was opaque and would therefore end up being WHITE), again doing it on a tan shirt because tan looks terrible on me, so I didn't even want to model this for you all....

BUT you can make this cute by doing it on a white shirt, or buying the dark color transfer paper, at least I thought it was a cool idea to use old book pages to put on a shirt. or you could do this onto fabric for a pillow? or purse??? I am digging the pillow idea... maybe I will turn this t-shirt into a pillow now......

15 comments:

Alice said...

Cool! But I still want to see you model it;)

Madelynnnn said...

I love this idea! Thanks for sharing it with us, even if you weren't happy with it. :)

Adventures in Dressmaking said...

OMG, what a very cool idea!!! I think it looks great!

Alison @ Oopsey Daisy said...

Wow! This is a totally cool idea!!

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

That is so creative! I love this idea! Thanks so much, I'll be linking.

homespundiva said...

That is super cool looking! I lurve it! I may have to share your awesomeness with mis amigas

Delia said...

What creative idea! I think it turned out just fine.

Unknown said...

Very neato! I do like this idea very much.

Francesca Morgan said...

You are so creative! I LOVE it!

Beverly {Flamingo Toes} said...

This is a super idea! I love it - and I appreciate all your tips!

the mama monster said...

way good idea! can't wait to try it.

Unknown said...

I see where you're headed with this--and I like it! I may give it a shot!

Stephanie said...

Thanks for sharing about your mistakes because I would have made the same ones! Very cool idea!

asian coke shirt said...

Thank you for sharing.. it shows that your blog is ecological friendly isn't it? :D Keep up the great job..

Stacey said...

The contrast looks great in the photo! I love this idea and think it would even look great on the tan with a bit of sequence as embellishment.

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