How-to: State Pride T-shirts

A bunch of the internet’s most-loved crafty blogs are joining forces this week to show our state pride. When I was invited to join this project, Illinois (where I live now), Michigan (where I went to college) and my home state of North Dakota were all up for grabs. I emailed the organizer of this state pride blog hop, Beckie from Infarrantly Creative, to check which state I should do, and she asked if I’d please rep the most under-repped state in the union, North Dakota. I was obviously delighted to oblige.

The state before mine in the blog hop schedule was New Mexico at Positively Splendid, & you can check out the full 30-state tour here.

North Dakota Nice

North Dakota is an unusual place to be from, and it’s a place people really like to make fun of. What the North Dakota naysayers don’t realize is how nice everyone from North Dakota is! The friendly phenomenon even has a nickname, North Dakota nice, which means different things to different people. For me, though, it basically means that most people smile a lot in NoDak, they’re often non-confrontational, and you can have an hours long chat with a stranger at the grocery store without seeming anything but normal.

There’s not much out there, even on Etsy, that represents North Dakota. So while I’m just sharing just a couple templates and printables, I hope this helps fill the empty void – even just a little – that is cute North Dakota-related designs. Click either image below for a full-size version to use however you like above and beyond today’s tutorial. (See? North Dakota people are nice.)

Supplies

North Dakota nice or putting the heart in heartland template
computer printer
iron transfer sheets
plain fabric surface (t-shirt, tote bag, pillow cover, etc.)
iron

Directions

Make sure your t-shirt/tote is clean, dry and ironed. Print out either the North Dakota Nice or putting the heart in heartland since 1889 template using special iron transfer sheets, and cut out the excess paper around the image. I formatted both templates specifically for iron transfer use: the PDFs are sized to the standard 8.5×11 inch sheet dimensions, and the images are flipped so the text will read correctly when ironed on.

Make sure your iron is heated up to the settings recommended on the iron transfer package’s instructions. (My transfers required high heat, no steam, and no ironing board.) Center your image on your shirt, flip your image transfer colored-side down, and iron your transfer down, applying even pressure over the whole transfer. Let cool completely.

In one steady motion, remove the backing from the image transfer. Again, you shouldn’t do this until your shirt has cooled.

And that’s it! A super simple image transfer shirt.

Next up in the blog hop is Kansas over at Skip to My Lou. If you want to share your best state pride project with the world, you should visit Infarrantly Creative on Monday the 23rd and to join Beckie’s state pride link party.