Custom Iron-On Designs

I've had an idea for doing an iron-on project since I saw this shirt at the mall.

 

My dachshund's name is Friday--named after the Cary Grant film His Girl Friday, not the day of the week--and I somehow resisted buying this.  I still regret it to this day!

So, Pockets and I got together to do some iron-on crafts.

I wanted nice, big letters like in the original shirt, but couldn't find any that looked decent.  I wound up with tiny letters.  Also, I wanted to have a dachshund on the shirt.  Of course, no dachshund iron-on patches.  Ugh.

Finally, I decided to make my own dachshund patch.  I bought one of the iron-on sheets, which are amazing for custom work!  I found a picture of a long-haired dachshund and drew it onto the back of the sheet.  (I went with a chevron design because it was the cutest they had available.... The selection was not that great.)

Next, I played with the layout.

I finally settled on this one.

Then I used the left over sheet to cut out two hearts for the sleeves.

~Buttons

Rand al'Thor, the Dragon, shirt

My favorite book series is The Wheel of Time, written by Robert Jordan, and finished by Brandon Sanderson.  The world, the characters, the magic, all are amazingly well-developed and fascinating.  It's truly epic in scope, as well as its themes.

The main character is Rand al'Thor, who begins as a shepherd, but in true fantasy fashion, winds up as a king.  I've been wanting to do a casual cosplay outfit for Rand since I saw this awesome red shirt at Goodwill.

I had recently done an iron-on (and as I go to link to it, I realize I haven't posted it yet.... it'll be coming soon) and I was surprised how easy it was to work with an iron-on sheet.  I thought it would be the best way to get some regal looking designs and dragons onto this shirt.  So I went to Joann and bought the Tulip gold Metallics sheet for less than $5.

The first thing I did was print out the dragon chapter icon used in The Wheel of Time onto cardstock.

I painstakingly cut it out.

Then I traced it onto the back of the gold sheet.

And painstakingly cut it out.

I actually did this twice, with a dragon facing left and a dragon facing right.  Next, I needed the kingly embellishment.  I looked at an official source for that:

Paul Bielaczyc's Rand al'Thor costume

Paul's costume has a bunch of swirls that decorate the top and sleeves.  Well, I had to put the dragons on my sleeves, so I wanted to add the swirls just to the neckline.  I copied the top part of one of Paul's swirls, then made a smaller, less fancy swirl for filler.

I cut them out on cardstock and traced them onto the back of the gold sheet.

After I got them all cut out, I toyed with the layout.  Eventually, I decided on this.

This iron-on stuff is SO simple!  Place face up on the fabric,

Cover with a cotton cloth (or other piece of fabric),

And iron for 40 seconds.

Repeat with all the remaining pieces and you get this:

Next, I ironed on the dragons, making sure they faced the front.

I paired the finished shirt with this adorable gold crown (once again, he's a king!) that I bought at Charlotte Russe for $6.

Then I wore it to school the next day!

I am so in love with it!


~Buttons