DIY Big Brother T-shirt

Way back when I was first pregnant I decided I wanted my son to have a 'Big Brother' shirt to wear when he was at the hospital with us. I knew it would make him feel special so everyone knew who he was.

About a week before the baby came we finally got around to making the shirt.

We actually made it for Family Home Evening, so of course I had my son help me out with this project, it was to be his shirt after all!

I know it's not perfect, there are some smudges here and there, but it was perfect for what we needed and my son was very proud of the finished product.

So here's what we used

- a plain t-shirt

- fabric paint (I used the Tulip Soft Matte brand from Michael's) 

-Heat n Bond (I got a whole pack from Wal-mart for 97 cents)

(I had seen a tutorial where the person had used freezer paper to cut out the stencil of the design she wanted on the shirt, but when I went to buy freezer paper I could only find a roll of like 100 sq. ft. for like $15, and I didn't need that much, and I also didn't want to spend that much...)

So the first thing I did was wash the t-shirt.

I then wrote and cut out the words 'BIG BROTHER' on the Heat n Bond.

So since this was for Family Home Evening, I cut out the words during the day when I had a few minutes of free time.

That evening for our lesson we talked about what would happen when the baby came. I had a feeling the baby was going to come in the night and we might need to take our son with us to the hospital (which is exactly what ended up happening), and so I wanted to kind of prepare him for what was ahead.

Making the shirt was our 'activity' portion of the evening.

We placed the stencil on the shirt.

My son then pointed out to me that the B's and R's needed circles in them...

See? All better :)

I then placed some fabric over the Heat n Bond and a piece of cardboard inside the shirt, I then used my iron on a medium/steam setting and pressed for about 30 seconds.

We let it cool for a minute, and then my son started painting.

We did 2 coats to make sure everything was all covered, and then we let it dry.

I peeled off the Heat n Bond about an hour later, and then let the paint finish drying over night.

He was so excited when he got to wear his new shirt at the hospital.

He was very proud to be the big brother :)

*I would not recommend this method if you need to make really crisp lines with the paint, it was just a simple cheap craft to have my son help me with.