If you like the shirt I made (pictured above), I’ve got good news for you! With just a few simple supplies, you can make one yourself.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Freezer paper (also available near the aluminum foil and plastic wrap in well-stocked grocery stores)
- Fabric paint or any acrylic paint + textile medium (a great option if you already have regular acrylic paint around from other projects)
- A t-shirt (you can often get these inexpensively at craft stores, so if you’re going to get paint anyway, look there)
- An iron
- Something to cut the stencil out of the freezer paper (can be as simple as scissors or an X-ACTO knife, or as complex as a Silhouette Cameo—which is what I used, but certainly wouldn’t buy just for this project!)
The basic process is pretty straightforward: cut a design out of freezer paper, iron it on to your t-shirt (freezer paper has a plastic coating on one side that adheres to the fabric when you iron it), apply paint to the gaps in your freezer paper stencil, peel it off, and then iron again to “set” the paint.
For detailed tutorials, check out these excellent blog posts:
- Dana’s goldfish pants
- Louise’s octopus shirt
- Lauren’s hilarious onesie (extra helpful if you do have a Silhouette Cameo)
Obligatory P.S.: if you’re pressed for time or are just not that into crafty things, we also have graduation year shirts for sale. 😉
2 Comments
hey so this didnt work really well well I’m 12so (:
Could you add “birth year” in addition to “kindergarten” to your calculator? I need to calculate graduation years from obituaries, which include only date of birth. Your calculator could accept month and year of birth, calculate the first year they were six in September, and then calculate graduation year.