Clear Blue Skylar: Letter Shirts

I have recently started to make my own letter shirts. I love the look, but they are so expensive to buy over the internet and you may not always find a fabric or shirt you like. So after a few trials and errors, I have come up with a quick and easy way to make your own.

You will need:

Two templates for your Greek letters. A larger one for the background fabric and a smaller one for the foreground fabric

The back ground templates should be 3'' for three letter names and 4'' for two letter names and about a half inch smaller for the foreground templates

Heat and Bond Lite Sewable Iron-on Adhesive

Fabric of your choice

Apparel of your choice that has been washed and pre-shrunk

Starting with the Heat and Bond, trace your templates and cut out your respective Greek letters. Be sure not to remove the protective paper. Also, I made my templates out of a thin, clear plastic so that I could reuse them with out damaging them over time.

Next, lay out your fabric and iron it to remove all wrinkles. Lay the Heat and Bond letters down on the fabrics your wish to use for your letters and, following the instructions on the packaging for your fabric type, iron down the Heat and Bond. Following the edge of the Heat and Bond, carefully cut out the letters (they should be fabric on one side and Heat and Bond on the other)

Then, lay out the clothing you wish to attach the letters to as flat as possible and iron to remove any wrinkles.

Now lay out your background fabric however you would like it to be on your apparel I used a ruler to keep mine straight across the front of my tanks, but feel free to stager them, put them vertical, on the back, etc. Follow the instructions on the Heat and Bond packaging and iron down the background letters.

Next, arrange the foreground letters on top of the background fabric and, again, iron the letters down.

Now, this is the tricky part. You need to sew the letters down. I recommend using thread that compliments the fabric either used on the letters or the top.

Luckily, I just have to make straight lines to sew down the deltas, but some letters will be more difficult. If you are unable to sew the letters down, you can use Head and Bond Ultra, which is meant to not be sewn and has an extra strong hold, but you will not have the pretty finishing stitches around your letters

Below are some examples of the tanks I have made

First two tanks that I made before the letters were sewn down