My 5 year old son is a crazy police lover/supporter! He wears his NY-PD police hat everyday, he is constantly on the lookout to wave at a “fellow” police office, he even wears aviator sunglasses when he goes outside because he says “they are police officer glasses”.
This year, for his birthday I knew I needed to get him some kind of police officer shirt. I found one just like this, but it was going to cost more than $30 and not ship/arrive before his birthday. So I went to work and made one. Here is how I did it . . .
Supplies
- Navy Shirt*
- Stencil/Vinyl Template
- Speedball Screen Printing White Paint
- Paintbrush
- Krylon Easy Tack
- Scrap Piece of Fabric
- Iron
*I bought a nice soft shirt on the clearance rack at The Children’s Place for $2.
Step 1 : Prep
Begin by wrapping a cardboard piece in parchment/wax paper and placing in the shirt so that paint doesn’t seep through to the other side. Now I measured the shirt across and subtracted 8″ to determine what size I wanted to make my template. (Ex. This shirt is 16″ so I made my template 8″ wide.)
For my template, I made the SVG below. Then I cut the template out of vinyl to use as a stencil. Download zip file of SVG, PNG and PDF below.
Step 2: Stencil Placement
Take stencil or vinyl and stick to shirt. Place vinyl, with it’s backing still on, where you want it on the shirt and tape down. Flip up and remove backing. Spray vinyl with a tacky spray. I use Easy Tack by Krylon. Flip vinyl back down on the shirt and press firmly. Remove the transfer tape slowly making sure all the vinyl stuck well to the shirt. I then use my Mini Pizza Roller
{For a step-by-step picture tutorial on how to stick the stencil correctly check out this post.}
Now place the template on the shirt. If using freezer paper, iron it into place. If using vinyl, stick it on using this method with tacky spray. I also have a video here that shows how I do it using another shirt I made.
Step 3: Painting
Take a paint brush with screen printing white paint and paint over all the areas of the stencil that need to be done.
Step 4: Finishing
Once the paint is completely dry {I wait 12-24 hours, just to make sure} remove the vinyl stencil and cardboard from inside the shirt. Then place a piece of scrap fabric over the painted areas and heat set the paint with a hot iron, like I did here.
That’s it! Now it’s ready for your future police officer to wear when he goes “on duty”.
