DIY T Shirt Designs for 4th of July

Fourth of July is coming up quickly!!  Every year we participate in our communities bike parade and so we like to dress a little festive.  For the last few years we have made our own t shirts.  We make DIY t shirt designs and each boy gets a different one.  They are super excited to wear them on 4th of July.  The boys usually continue to wear them after the holiday but we don’t spend a ton of time or money on them.  They are just a fun way for my family to be patriotic and celebrate together.  

My oldest son helped me to design his shirt.  He even fiddled around with Illustrator getting the alignment just right.  This kid sure likes things a certain way.  I wonder who he takes after with that…

I found our blank t shirts at Target and both were on sale for $5 each.  Such a great price for the base piece.  I was so glad they had the colors of America in stock. 

I used my favorite technique of spray painting on my youngest son’s shirt.  I’ve done these before and they come out messy, cool, and not as dark as if you were to use fabric paint.  I first printed out “USA” on a piece of computer paper and then made a stencil using some craft plastic.  

I put a magazine in the inside of the shirt to keep the paint from seeping through.   Then I used spray adhesive to adhere the stencil to the shirt (don’t use too much or you end up with some on the shirt when you peel it off!)  I used a plastic grocery bag and tape to make sure the res of the shirt was covered and out-of-the-way of the over spray.  Then I did one pretty heavy spray of the black spray paint.  I let it dry and then removed the tape, bag and stencil.  You can see that in some areas the spray paint seeped a little bit.  I think that works perfectly with the tie dye effect of the shirt.  I certainly wouldn’t dream of starting over just to not get those few little spots.  You can also see some of the blue showing through the letters which I think looks kind of cool.  Of course if you want a more finished product, just use normal stencils and fabric paint and carefully paint your design.

Another of our go-to methods for making 4th of July shirts is to use iron ons.  My son and I first created our flag inspired design on the computer and then printed it on t shirt transfer paper for dark-colored shirts.  Then we just followed the directions on the transfer paper to iron the design on.  

I love how this one came out and so did my son.  I can’t wait for them to wear these on 4th of July as we celebrate with the rest of our community!  Do you dress up for 4th of July?