DIY Fashion: No Sew Sorority Greek Letter Shirt

It's DIY time! As an Alpha Delta Pi alumni, I made plenty of my own letter shirts due to a tight budget during my college years. I know how it is working, going to school and being in extracurricular activities. You have to support yourself and be as frugal and practical as possible. This DIY will give you the opportunity to do just that! As a bonus, you get to tap into your creativity or even use this as a sisterhood bonding event! The cool thing about making your own shirts is that you can use patterns and color combinations you can't find online for sorority letter shirt options. What are you waiting for?
                                     





Here's what you'll need from your local craft store (like Hobby Lobby or JoAnn):
  • Fabric 
  • Puffy paint that complements the fabric pattern
  • A plain shirt of any color 
  • Iron on decal material (you find sheets or rolls for around $5)  
  • Scissors
  • Iron
Step 1. I traced my national jersey letters onto paper and cut those out as stencils.  You can do the same or even make your own!  Here is an example of my "A" stencil:


Step 2.  Flip the fabric over so that the showing side is facing down.  Take a pencil or a very light marker and trace around the stencils, so you know where to cut.  This is how my fabric looked after I cut it out:


Step 3. Now it's time to use the fabric letters as the stencils on the iron bonding material. Unroll the bonding material and trace on the paper side.  Not the grooved, sticky side. Afterward, cut the bonding material letters out,  This is how they should look: 


Step 4. Use your nail to peel the bonding material off of the paper.  Place it in line with the fabric letters very carefully, with the grooved side facing you and the smooth side against the fabric.  This is how the backside of your fabric letters should look with the bonding material on them:


Step 5. Carefully place the letters flat onto your shirt, keeping the bonding material in line with the fabric letters.  Take a heated iron and simply iron over the letters.  The heat melts the material, which bonds the letters to the shirt, looking like this:


Step 6. Last but not least, take your fabric paint and outline the letters to reinforce the bonding, help the letters stand out better and reduce the look of fringed fabric ends:

And you're a pro!  These are seriously awesome, and definitely fun to make.  If you buy enough fabric, on sale shirts and bonding material, you can make so many letter shirts, and at a fraction of the price.  So get your sorority paraphernalia craft on!


Written 
by 
Nicole Guest

4 comments

  1. I love this! I use fabric glue and sequin ribbon around the edges of mine, since I dont have a sewing machine. Ive been searching high and low for other methods of keeping the letters on for washing, without having to sew. I am definitely going to try this puffy paint solution. Thanks for sharing! PanHel <3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That sequin ribbon sounds like a good idea, thanks for sharing!

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  2. I made a couple of letter shirts to keep up with my tight college budget considering that I wanted to work while at the same time, go to school and participate in extracurricular activities. It, therefore, does not comes as a surprise when I see people using their creativity to make their own DIY shirts using color combinations and colors that you rarely find online for sorority shirts. This is fun!

    Sherita @ Astute Promotions

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sororities and Fraternities can get expensive, so why not find a budget-friendly way to rep your organization!

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