DIY Custom HTV T-Shirts for Kids and Toddlers
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I recently dug through my craft supplies and discovered a stack of t-shirt blanks that had been patiently waiting for me to remember to do something with them. 😅 I also had plenty of heat transfer vinyl (HTV) on hand, and a few design ideas bouncing around in my head, so I finally decided to make some custom HTV shirts for the kids. This turned into a fun weekend project!
Short n’ Sweet
Perfect for an adorable little two-year-old. Although, if we’re being honest, she’s more of a Sour Patch Kid.
“First she’s sour… then she’s sweet!” 🤭
I used a playful script font paired with a few decorative accents. For this shirt, I chose white HTV on a light-colored tee to create a sweet, understated look that’s cute without being too loud.
Follow Your Rainbow
This simple rainbow design was inspired by one of my favorite video game songs from Sonic Adventure 2. Since this was a plain white blank, I chose a color rainbow vinyl to make the simple design pop!
Far Out
I had a few sheets of galaxy-pattern HTV in my craft stash and wanted to create something aptly space-themed. I loved the idea of this floating astronaut, and paired him with a retro-inspired font for “Far Out.” I love how the galaxy vinyl gives the shirt extra visual interest!
Super Mario Bros. Shirts
While flipping through my son’s coloring books, I noticed that the Super Mario Bros. artwork had nice thick outlines that would translate well to HTV. I scanned a few pages, adjusted the contrast, then vectorized the artwork in Adobe Illustrator before sending it to my Cricut. I love that these shirts are unique but feature some favorite kid-friendly characters. For my son’s shirts, I used these Garanimals shirts which are a comfortable cotton / poly blend.
These designs were created strictly for personal use. 😊
My Most Used HTV Supplies
I’ve tried lots of different brands of HTV over the years, and here are my thoughts on what I’ve discovered. While certainly not the cheapest, my favorite product in terms of weeding and transfer success is the Sister EasyWeed HTV. It’s a dream to work with and seems to have enough give even for a cotton/poly blend t-shirt.
For the gradient patterns, I used HTVRONT. This product does not weed as easy—I find the vinyl clings to the sticky part and doesn’t pull away super easily, and also likes to tear when you’re pulling at it. But, the vinyl transfers fine and holds up well in the wash. One thing I noticed is the gradients do show some banding, which is common when digitally printing gradients of colors. Something to be mindful of.
I got the galaxy prints from Vinyl Supply Unlimited. I have absolutely no issues with this product, but looking at their website now I don’t think they carry the space designs anymore. 😔
A few years ago I splurged on a HTVRONT Auto Heat Press. This has made transferring HTV and DTF so much faster and consistent. No issues at all with this product for t-shirts. I saw some reviews of people struggling to press onto thicker material like sweatshirts, but I can’t speak to that personally.
I’m using an older Cricut Explore Air 2 and it’s just fine for my needs! As of this blog post, I am seeing some used ones on eBay that you can get a deal on if you want to get into HTV without paying full price. Otherwise, if you want a new machine it looks like the most recent Cricut model as of this blog post is the Explore 5.
Share your feedback!
I loved how all of these shirts came out! The kids now have a few unique designs that nobody else will be wearing, and I had a great excuse to spend a couple hours designing and creating.
So, what do you think, particularly about the custom designs I created? Would you be interested in making these at home? If so, let me know in the comments below!