Christmas Shirts using Iron-on Vinyl

When I was little, one of Santa’s Elves sneakily delivered Christmas pj’s on my bed sometime on Christmas Eve.  I looked forward to it, I loved it, it was almost the best Christmas tradition ever!

Then one Christmas Eve, no pj’s were delivered.  I was devastated.  I kept checking and looking but they never appeared.  I was crushed.  Thankfully Christmas came the next day, however, I was still so sad that an Elf never delivered my pj’s.

I never told anyone.  Until about 25 years later.  I finally told my mom how sad I was the year the pj’s stopped coming.

As it turns out, my mom had no idea.  Apparently, they had only done it two years, she had no idea they meant so much to me!  But it was clearly at a crucial point in my childhood where it totally effected me.  My mom felt horrible about the whole thing.  And we both had a good laugh about it!

So in my family, we decided to have a similar tradition: one that many of you might have.  On Christmas Eve, my children get to open one gift.  And that gift is always pj’s.

I have many friends who make their kids Christmas pj’s.  I don’t really sew so I have never had the desire to do that.  Until this year.  Somethings strange hit me.  It happens about once every 5 years; this weird need to sew something.  So I went out and bought fabric to sew pj pants.  And then I ordered some cute iron-on vinyl from Expressions Vinyl!

I made this shirt for my son:

To make this shirt, you will need:

• white tshirt
• green iron on vinyl
• red iron on vinyl
• black iron on vinyl
• multi use paper sheet
• iron
• scissors
• vinyl cutting machine (optional)
• tweezers (optional)

First you will cut out your vinyl.  I used my Silhouette SD, but if you don’t have a vinyl cutting machine you can cut simple shapes with scissors.

The important thing with cutting iron on vinyl is that the shiny side must be down, and you always need to mirror the image.

After you have cut the vinyl, you will want to weed the excess vinyl off of the backing sheet.  I use tweezers to help me weed the vinyl.

After I weeded the vinyl, I laid out the vinyl layers, one on top of the other, until it looked like I wanted it to.  Then I cut away excess vinyl that overlaps to give the design a three dimensional  look.

Next you will iron on each layer of vinyl, one layer at a time, starting with the lowest layer.

After the first layer is down, you will want to use the multi use paper sheet to help protect the vinyl you’ve already ironed down.

Continue until all layers have been ironed on.

And let your little boy enjoy his shirt, whether it goes with pj pants or jeans!

Then if you happen to have a little girl, you might enjoy an ornament shirt like this.

To make this shirt, you will need:

• tshirt
• pink iron on vinyl
• red iron on vinyl
• vinyl cutting machine or scissors
• ribbon
• needle and thread or sewing machine
• iron

First you will cut out three ornaments, I created two pink ornaments and one red ornament.  Remember you may need to mirror your ornaments prior to cutting.  And remember when you cut the ornaments out, the shiny side will be down.

Next iron on your ornaments as you like on your tshirt.

If you’d like to add a little more to your shirt, sew ribbon and bows onto each ornament.  It creates a fun three dimensional attribute to the shirt while keeping it unique and perfect for a girl!

Let your little girl enjoy her shirt!  It would be perfect to go with pj pants or jeans to wear during the day.

Do you have a holiday pj tradition?