Making t shirts/ Cricut machine

Looking for help with possibly making T shirts. I’ve used freezer paper to make stencils for silhouettes and letters in the past but used my printer and spent hours cutting out letters by hand before painting onto shirts. They wash and wear well but take forever!

I tried once buying designs on Etsy, printing onto vinyl and ironing on but have been disappointed with the results- either the vinyl peeled off at first wash and/or you could see the outline around the image too much.

So I’m wondering if I should consider taking the plunge to buy a cricut- looks like I can make freezer paper stencils on that. Or is it easy to print onto vinyl - is there a make or type that actually works- would I have to buy a heat press too for that? I’m looking to make shirts for 11 of us so I guess if I can source cheap t shirts etc it might pay for itself.

And any thoughts on t shirts which will take a print or fabric paint but which are comfortable in the heat? I’m in uk not USA.

Or I may make a few by hand and contact someone to get some custom made shirts- but getting the sizes right worries me doing that!

Thanks for any suggestions!

We have a cricut at work and used plain cotton Hanes t-shirts and the iron on material found at arts and crafts stores. It worked great through 4 or 5 washes so far (don’t wear the shirts outside of Disney), even for a fairly intricate design. It was kind of a pain to peel out all the holes in the snowflakes, but the results were awesome.
image

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Why ever wouldn’t you wear that shirt outside Disney?

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They are awesome BTW!!

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I highly recommend siser easy weed vinyl and a silhouette machine. Our shorts from 2 years ago are still going strong. Here’s some from our upcoming trip.

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Do you have a friend with a Cricut that you could borrow? That’s what I did and just bought my own iron-on vinyl from Michael’s. It was super easy to buy fun .svg files from Etsy (most are very cheap - $1-3 each), cut on the vinyl, and iron-on shirts I found at Target or Old Navy. And I just used my regular iron, no heat press necessary.

Here’s one shirt I made for our trip this past June.

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I also suggest ordering the files (less than $3) and all you have to do is cut and apply but I’m not a designer so that’s the least fun part for me.

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Thanks! These all look great! On things like the disneybound one, is the vinyl just the words/ ears or is there a clear vinyl over the whole pattern.
Sadly I don’t know anyone with a cricut or I’d have a practice.

I’ll see if can source that particular vinyl - but I’m going to want to cut out stencil letters for some- we did a set of 11 shirts with phrases on the back last trip. Adult ones will- hopefully - still fit, & I’ll persuade the younger nieces to wear my boys hand me downs I hope- but I’m going to need to make more for the older kids.

I have never done stencils so I can’t help on that. There is only vinyl for the ears/letters but if you are fine with wasting vinyl you can keep it all together to ensure the spacing is right you’d just toss all the rest of the vinyl on that sheet


Not sure if I’m loading a photo- but these are the shirts I need to make more- it’s the lettering on the back that’s hard.

And this is my vinyl effort- you can see the outline on the blue shirt and it didnt wash well…

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Yay the photos worked- I’m on char more than forum so that’s new. I can get the sizer vinyl on amazon so I might buy some to play with- I’ve got a few shirts around that I can try.

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I also use Siser EasyWeed. I have a Silhouette but the Cricut does the same thing.


I love making shirts. I buy T-shirts on jiffyshirts. I don’t know though if they ship to the U.K.

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You are so talented! I love jiffyshirts as well.

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I would suggest looking on Etsy for a vendor who will cut out the words for you, then send it to you to iron on.

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Love these. Especially the toys one!

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Thanks. I have made way too many Disney shirts.

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Thanks. That’s my favorite from this last trip.

I love the double layer look, I haven’t reached that skill level yet :crazy_face:

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Oh, that’s super easy–it’s just an offset.

I have a first gen silhouette that I haven’t used in a long time (like maybe 8 years). Should I just invest in something new or do you think it will do things like this? I do know I have to update my software, which is a scary process (no matter what software you’re updating, lol)