Thanos LED T-Shirt - Guardians of the Galaxy

thought that I would share with you a quick shirt that I made for the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie. I used a comic cover of Thanos with the infinity gauntlet for inspiration and decided to add some LED lights to give it a bit of flair.

The materials needed for this project are all very straight forward. You can get the HTV at your local Michaels or a craft store like that. You could use something like fabric paint as an alternative but the HTV is going to look great.

Materials

• Black T-shirt
• LED string of lights (I got mine at the dollar store for $3
• Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) in Gold, Purple, Black, White
• Sharpies to color LED lights
• Fabric Ink for eyes.
• Duct Tape

We start by creating the piece of art that we can use with the HTV on the shirt. The HTV is only going to be good for solid colors and blocks and we want to work from the bottom up. I have attached the design that I used.

I used a program called Gimp to create the image and layers. We will be starting with the gold and then laying the black over top and after finishing the face. There is a lot of tutorials on using HTV and Siser North America has great ones on their youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/SiserNorthAmerica and I really enjoying using their products.

The first layer is the gold. I used an iron to release the HTV from the transfer onto the shirt. Once the Gold was done the only color that was going to be layered on top of it was the black so we moved ahead to that. We then finish up the HTV with the purple then white and the eyes we will finish at the end of the project since that is going to be fabric paint.

Next, we are going to need to set up the LED lights so that they line up with where the gems are located on the shirt. I did this by simply laying the strip on the shirt and then folding over the band in order to shorten it and get me the length that I wanted. I used some duct tape to keep the folded band in place and then proceeded to do this for the remaining gems on the shirt.

At the end, you are going to have a band that looks a little something like this.

Next, I cut some holes in the center on the gems. I was not too worried about how clean these cuts are because the LED will be bright and the cut will not be noticeable once it is completed. It will take some playing with the get the holes large enough for the LED to sit in and shine through but with some patience, you will end up with something like the image.

Once you are happy with how the lights are fitting, turn the shirt over and tape the lights to the shirt. I used duct tape so that when I want to was the shirt I can remove the LED lights. Also, we will cover up the extra lights with duct tape so that they do not shine through the shirt.

Now time for the real fun. Having the white LED lights are looking nice but we are really trying to impress. I took some Sharpies and colored the LED lights to match the colors from the comic cover. The LEDs will still shine bright but will now carry the color of the Sharpie with them.

I then took the Sharpies and colored the rest of the gems. The HTV will provide a good surface for the Sharpies and will hold the color nicely.

Now time for the menacing beady eyes that Thanos had in the comics. I decided to go with yellow fabric paint. I like using the tulip stuff because I can do some texture with them and give it a raised and more rounded look.

That is all there is to it. A simple and quick tutorial that looks great and will be sure to impress. I hope you enjoy and be sure to share your completed projects and let me know how this went for you.