Pimp My Clothes
A new addition came to the family recently and I wanted to make some awesome onesies for her so I went and got some inkjet clothing transfer paper for my inkjet and some blank clothes. If you're like me you always walk out of whatever store you go into and end up walking out with stuff for yourself you had no intention to buy.
This instructable is a how to make awesome pictures to "pimp your clothes".
I am not responsible in any way for ANYONE doing ANY damage to ANYTHING!
What you need:
Printer transfer paper (available anywhere they sell printer paper usually)
Blank spot on fabric (probably in a your house somewhere)
Iron (helps if you have the option to keep steam off no matter what heat)
Computer (internet helps)
Printer (I assume the newer the better just for ink technology)
This instructable is a how to make awesome pictures to "pimp your clothes".
I am not responsible in any way for ANYONE doing ANY damage to ANYTHING!
What you need:
Printer transfer paper (available anywhere they sell printer paper usually)
Blank spot on fabric (probably in a your house somewhere)
Iron (helps if you have the option to keep steam off no matter what heat)
Computer (internet helps)
Printer (I assume the newer the better just for ink technology)
Picture
You'll need a good picture to put on whatever you're putting on. For this I'm using a plain gray hat I've had for a bit. I'm a fan of stencil art so I popped on google image search and typed in "nintendo stencil". I was looking for Bowser or Mario but the controller looked pretty easy and pretty sweet.
Editing
The entire time I wasn't at my computer to I had to improvise on graphics editing, thankfully my room mate had told me about GIMP which you can find easy and *FREE* as the first search result on google. I LOVE THIS PROGRAM NOW! Ease of use and versatility is competitive with Adobe CS which I use(d) at home.
Basically the easiest way to make an image look good and be usable is to take a large brush on the eraser tool and start getting rid of everything you don't want on your print. Work your way down to the pixel level using zoom and smaller brush size. Remember, windows based computers ctrl-z and not biting off alot at a time are both your friends.
Basically the easiest way to make an image look good and be usable is to take a large brush on the eraser tool and start getting rid of everything you don't want on your print. Work your way down to the pixel level using zoom and smaller brush size. Remember, windows based computers ctrl-z and not biting off alot at a time are both your friends.
Printing
If you're on a windows system you probably don't want to use the windows photo viewer to print from unless you are planning on using the entire sheet of paper or doing multiple prints of the same thing since it does include the nifty 4x 4x6, and 6 3x5 feature in the print options. For this, I opened a word document in office so I could make it the size I wanted it for my hat.
If wanting a specific size printout, you'll want to print some tests on actual paper so you don't waste the transfers. Also, one thing I failed to do by not reading the instructions first, was flipping my image so it was reversed. Not a life ruining factor on this project, but may pose problems if you are putting text on something.
If wanting a specific size printout, you'll want to print some tests on actual paper so you don't waste the transfers. Also, one thing I failed to do by not reading the instructions first, was flipping my image so it was reversed. Not a life ruining factor on this project, but may pose problems if you are putting text on something.
Triming Image
Cut your picture out so you have some space between the edge of the image so it has something to attach to your fabric.
Ironing
As I mentioned before, you'll want an iron you can get real hot with no steam. The one I had access to didn't have this ability so I drained the water from it and let it steam out what was left in it.
**This step is the most hazardous to your clothing and home since you can mess up your project here and feasibly burn your house down if you forget about the iron being on a high heat with no steam.**
The instructions (that I actually did read) said not to use an ironing board. I used the corner of a desk with a cloth under my hat for this.
As you iron you'll be able to tell when the edges begin to bond to your fabric. You can lift the backing off as you go to check your progress. If the areas which were not printed on are white that area isn't bonded, keep going. Also if you shift the transfer during this step you can mis-align your project and make an instant fail here, so take your time.
The transfers I purchased read that if I wanted a matte finish to take the backing off while it was hot, if I wanted gloss to wait until it has cooled. You might want to check this if you have a preference for your project.
**This step is the most hazardous to your clothing and home since you can mess up your project here and feasibly burn your house down if you forget about the iron being on a high heat with no steam.**
The instructions (that I actually did read) said not to use an ironing board. I used the corner of a desk with a cloth under my hat for this.
As you iron you'll be able to tell when the edges begin to bond to your fabric. You can lift the backing off as you go to check your progress. If the areas which were not printed on are white that area isn't bonded, keep going. Also if you shift the transfer during this step you can mis-align your project and make an instant fail here, so take your time.
The transfers I purchased read that if I wanted a matte finish to take the backing off while it was hot, if I wanted gloss to wait until it has cooled. You might want to check this if you have a preference for your project.