Sandpaper T-Shirt Iron-On!

YAY! It's time for another kid craft day! Today, I was so excited to get to play with my nephew, Mickey. I haven't seen him much recently, so it was a great treat. As always, I had to do my awesome aunt duty and we did a project. Have you ever noticed that with boys, we tend to call things "projects" and with girls, we call things "crafts"? It just seems more manly to call it a "project" rather than a craft; maybe it's just me...

Anyway, Mickey and I decided to make a Sandpaper T-Shirt Iron-On today. I've done it once before with great success, and this was no different. It's very easy and our kiddos feel great to be able to accomplish something and then even being able to wear their project. Way cool.

Photo from Pinterest

 As the linked-blog above states, you will want to make sure to color in your picture really well on the sandpaper. If you don't do this, the picture will not transfer onto the fabric as nicely and will be extra light. Since the sandpaper is fine, it's not too scratchy to use either, which is a plus. 

Mickey decided he wanted Batman on his shirt, so I found the logo on Google and did my best to copy the outline onto the sandpaper. It wasn't perfect, but that's ok - the whole thing was gonna be colored in anyway. 

After my nephew had finished coloring in the picture, I went back over it one more time to make sure it was dark enough. This is important; if it's not dark enough, it won't transfer well onto the shirt. I still think it may have been a bit light, but it worked just the same. 

Ready to be ironed on!

The next step is to iron it onto the shirt. Alphamom's blog says to use either a paper towel - which is what they used - or parchment paper on top of the sandpaper to be sure you don't ruin your iron. I love that you can use a paper towel! Talk about a cheap alternative to parchment paper!! Well, it seems like it anyway. However, I did not use a paper towel. I was being lazy. I ran out of paper towels in the house today and rather then making the long trek to the garage for another roll, I just used parchment paper. All that to say - I can vouch for the parchment paper. 

Alphamom's blog recommends peeling a corner to be sure the image has begun to transfer. Another good tip! Since you haven't moved much of it, you can continue to iron it if you need to. It really doesn't take more than 30 seconds on each spot though. 

The image wasn't quite dark enough in spots to grab it as much as I would've liked, and in that case, it is possible to take the sandpaper off and color it in a little darker and re-apply it. But, it's a challenge to make sure you get it in the exact same spot, so it's best to color it in as dark as possible the first go-around.

The other nice thing about this is that you can make multiples of the same shirt! I've done that as well, so I know it to be true. All you have to do is re-fill the colored areas a bit before applying the sandpaper to the next shirt. Very cool!

I think he likes it! I would highly recommend this project! Worth the time, the minimal cost and the energy. Plus, how fun for your kids to be able to wear their own designs! Give it a try and enjoy!!