DIY: Graphic Wear |
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| Written by Alexandra Trottier |
| Sunday, 24 May 2009 19:00 |
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Warning! There are no more excuses for committing crimes of fashion. No matter what the season, what your budget or what your personality, there is a graphic-tee to fit every individual taste. The graphic-tee is the garment that has single-handedly created an alliance between fashionistas and those who are, let’s say, less than enthusiastic about such matters.
What I love most about this style is that it is such a simple, fun and cheap way to update your wardrobe all by yourself! Instead of going to the mall and picking from a pre-established selection, why not create your own personal symbol at home? 1) Getting Your Materials: There are just a few materials you will need for this project: * Epson Iron-On Transfer Paper for white tees (under $20.00 for 10 sheets from Staples) * Staples T-Shirt Transfers for Dark Fabric ($16.15 for 5 sheets from Staples) * A plain white or coloured tee (you can get this really cheap from Zellers or Wal-mart) * A scanner/printer * Scissors * An iron * Note: Make sure you look carefully when purchasing your Iron-On Transfer Paper. If the paper is intended for white tees, it will not work on dark fabrics.
2) Selecting Your Symbol: When creating your design, I think it’s best to draw from something that is special to you. For this article I decided to use three paintings made by my mother. Here are some other ideas to draw upon: your own sketch or drawing, the title of a song you wrote, cropping an image out of a photograph you like, the name and logo of your band, old black and white family photos, an image from your fave vacation spot. 3) Scan & Crop: To begin, scan your item onto your computer and crop out the specific image you want to include on your tee. For instance, since my mother’s paintings include several flowers, I cropped out only the three I intended to use for my design. *Note: If the item you want to use cannot be scanned due to its size, for instance if there is a mug with a design on it you like, take a pic of the item and scan that instead. 4) Design: Next, use the program of your choice to arrange the images you scanned as you 5) Print: When printing your image(s), you will need to use special Iron-On Transfer Paper. Set it up in your printer as you would with regular printer paper and print away! Once your image is printed, cut it out along its edges so it keeps its shape. Make sure no white from the paper is visible. 6) Iron: Follow the directions given on the package of Iron-On Transfer Paper when ironing your symbol onto your tee. Make sure you wait the full amount of time it tells you before wearing your new tee, as the image may fall off or get misshapen. Remember, wearing graphics doesn’t have to be limited to the face of a t-shirt. There are many places to wear your new design. Try adding it onto dresses and skirts, baseball caps, hair- and sweatbands and even jewelry. Here is another quick and fun DIY for creating your own pendants, rings and buttons. 1) Materials:
3) Create your backing: Next, cut two pieces of foam the same size as your penny. Using your hot glue gun, glue these pieces onto both of its sides. Next, take the backing of your choice (ring, safety pin, etc.) and use your hot glue gun to stick it onto the back of your foam. Make sure it is centered properly and press firmly. 4) Finish: To complete your creation, glue your image onto the other side of the foamed penny using only a small amount of glue. Next, glue only the border of your glass gel, on its bottom not its side. (You can use a coloured gel, but I would suggest using a transparent one for best results.) Place the glued side on top of your image and press down firmly. You probably want to wait about 24 hours before wearing your new accessory so that the glue has time to dry properly.
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Comments (1)
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The beauty of the graphic-tee is that it provides the opportunity for everyone to follow a trend, while still maintaining his or her own uniqueness. It allows us to celebrate our differences by providing a platform with which to showcase our fave retro band, movie, tv show, video game, slogan, and so on. The possibilities are endless! The graphic-tee also reduces the stress that comes with trying to figure out what to wear in the morning: just throw on your comfy tee with a pair of jeans and you're good to go. With so many choices, you can have a different graphic-tee for everyday of the week!
would like them to appear on your tee. (For those who are more experienced and want to create a more technical design, feel free to use Photoshop to spruce up and add to your image. For those who are going with the faster, simpler approach, I like to just print off the images as they are and arrange them directly onto the shirt itself.)
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