Chasing Rainbows

Okay so I waved the Lulu & Co jumper off with the DHL man mid week. I loved it but there was no way I could live with that annoying bump on the front and believe me I tried really hard to get rid of it. So what's a girl to do who wants to wear a rainbow on her chest? Use her noggin and see what she can come up with. And this is what the noggin came up with.

Okay - not as sweet as the jumper but infinitely cheaper. 

For those who follow me on Instagram, they know I will have had a go with some transfer paper to do a Plants vs Zombies tee for my older boy. It turned out okayish but the transfer itself was not that sharp and it also cracked after a wash. Like it had seen better days. But ... the transfer paper did cost me £1 for 2 sheets at the pound shop. 

Not so good eh?

But I thought this could work in my favour actually. So I found a picture of a rainbow, printed it out on to some transfer paper and then ironed it on an old tee. And it turned out quite well don't you think? Looks like an authentic 70's tee complete with retro washed out transfer. People pay good money for stuff like this you know? I pay good money for stuff like this you know!

The effect after one wash.

So this is what I basically did .....

• Created a few designs on the laptop.

• And printed it out on the transfer paper.

• Note that if you are doing a text print - you need to reverse the image or you will have backwards reading text. I forgot to do this when I printed "George Dude" out but luckily I remembered before I ruined a tee.

• You need to cut out the image leaving a 1mm or so gap around the edge - if you are doing this on a white tee shirt, this won't show up but on a coloured tee, you will see this outer edge so you need to keep this as small as possible.

Another rainbow with a bump in it! Gah!

• Get your tee shirt ready. I wanted to see what this would like on a grey background as I might do this on a grey sweatshirt at a later date so I found an old grey tee of George's to practice on. Make sure it is laid perfectly flat (give it an iron first).

• Lay your cut out image on the tee.

• Give it a press with the iron for a couple of minutes (follow the instructions on the packet) making sure you do circular motions to cover all the area adequately.

• Let it cool down and carefully remove the backing paper.

Mine and his (George's).

So that was a bit of fun but it opens up a lot of potential. The transfer paper I used is definitely on the dodgy side but there are lots of different ones on Amazon to try which should give you a much better finish (sharper, brighter, clearer) - just read the reviews carefully and take your pick - I am not being held responsible for your knacked up tees! I actually prefer the muted effect on our tees - like I said, I saw how this could work in my favour to get the look I wanted.

Peace!

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Last note :

• Clothing which you want to do this on should ideally be a 100% cotton or at least a high cotton percentage as you will be ironing the transfer directly on to the fabric (no protective cloth) - singed fabrics don't smell good.

• Pick something which is a tight knit fabric so jersey tees are ideal. Jumpers are too loose a weave and there will be gaps in the print. Basically if you stretch the garment - the transfer stretches. Or it does using the dodgy transfer paper I used.

• If you are wanting to print on a dark coloured garment, you need to buy transfer paper for dark garments for the best result. As you will notice, the same coloured rainbow came out better on George's lighter grey tee than mine AND I was chancing it using transfer paper for light fabrics rather than dark.

• Keep your shapes simple to cut round - the first one I did of the cactus is not for the faint hearted.

• Idea! For mums who have mucky pups like me - maybe print out a few designs on a sheet (like the stars I've done on the transfer sheet above) and save them and cut them out to use over stubborn stains!