DIY Personalized Birthday Shirt

Have you ever researched buying a personalized birthday shirt for your child? They are crazy expensive! I saw some for $30!! For one child’s shirt!? I don’t think so! Thus my Domestic “Goddessness” emerged. I thought “Hey now, I can make this!”

First, I got a plain white shirt from Walmart ($3 – grab a regular Tshirt not an undershirt). Then I was off to Hobby Lobby for a set of stencils that were less than $4 and paints. For this project, I used Tulip brand fabric paint in the squeeze bottles. They were less than $2 each.

I then pre-washed the white shirt and dried it in the dryer. Once clean, I placed a piece of cardboard inside the shirt. This keeps the paint from bleeding through to the back.

Once I placed the stencils to where I wanted them, I painted the shirt with various colors. My son has a huge obsession with balloons, so his first birthday party is balloon theme. I painted a huge cupcake in the middle of the shirt, then using stencil letters, I painted his name under the cupcake. I hand painted the # 1 and the balloons beside his name.

It is imperative that you let the shirt dry for at least 48 hours, and then wash on cold water to set the colors. I would recommend hanging the shirt to dry.

Once dry, get as many pictures as you can with the child wearing the shirt prior to his party so it is still clean!

If you want to preserve the shirt, place an enormously huge bib around him while he eats.

Depending on how you want to design the shirt, it should take less than an hour to make. It took me approximately 30 minutes to make his shirt, but I’m fairly certain it took less than 30 seconds for him to get it dirty!

This is a  DIY guest post by Beth Nuckols. Beth is a mom and photographer in the Tri-state area.