Late Night Crafts & Creations: DIY KC Royals Tshirt

Here in Kansas, we not only bleed K-State Purple, but also Royals Blue. We are big KC Royals fans...which is often tough because they haven't won the World Series since 1985...the year after I was born. Tough as sometimes is to be a Royals fan, we try to make it to the 'K' to watch at least one or two games a year.

With the possibility of the Royals making it to the playoffs for the first time since 1985, the family and I bought tickets to today's game - the last home game of the season.

Joe, Luke and I all had Royals shirts we could wear to the game, but Hannah did not, so I thought I would see if I could whip something up for her to wear to the game with my trusty Silhouette.

I found a blank t-shirt at Wal-Mart on clearance for $2 (Score!!) that was the PERFECT Royals Blue.

I googled and found a Royals logo, and then converted the JPEG into a PNG in Adobe Photoshop in order to input it into the Silhouette software. I then opened it up and traced it in the Silhouette software.

It took a little while to erase some of the extra 'lines' that showed up and fill in a few spots with the pencil, but it was relatively easy overall.

When using Heat Transfer Vinyl, it is important that you 'mirror' your image (Right Click + Flip Horizontally). Otherwise, when you place it against your shirt it will be the wrong direction. It will look backwards when it cuts put will read correctly when finished.

Learning from the first time I used HTV, I was sure to put the HTV shiny side down on my cutting mat. I used the existing HTV settings in the Silhouette software and let 'er rip.

Note: When cutting small pieces of Vinyl (Adhesive or HTV), I normally use some painter's tape to keep it in place. it works like a charm and doesn't damage the vinyl.

The HTV cut just perfectly and was really easy to weed with the little Silhouette tool that came with my vinyl starter kit. It's just my opinion, but HTV seems a lot easier to weed than regular adhesive vinyl.

Here's how it looked all weeded and ready to place on the shirt.

I just eye-balled it to center it on the t-shirt, laying it with the shiny side up.

I used a regular iron to adhere the HTV to the shirt. That's one thing I love about the Silhouette - I don't need some fancy heat press to make personal t-shirts; I just use my regular iron and it works great!

I use the iron on medium-high heat and place one of those 'flour sack towels' in between the vinyl and the t-shirt. I think I pressed it for about 60 seconds or maybe a little longer. Be sure to get all of the corners and intricate details of the design with the iron or it will start to peel on the edges (I know this from experience).