DIY Lyrics Tee

I’ve loved Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” since the first time I heard it. Even when it was on the radio three times an hour, I never got sick of it. Not to mention that the video is artistically, visually perfect. Let’s pause and appreciate it again:

From the beginning, one line from the song stood out to me. I wanted it on a T-shirt. So four years later, I finally got around to making that happen!

DIY Lyrics Tee Materials:
Mossimo Junior’s Boyfriend V-Neck from Target
Tulip Velveteen Soft fabric paint in black
Small acrylic paintbrushes, two sizes
Newspaper and/or cardboard to put inside the shirt
Straight pins
Steam iron

Originally I wanted to use an iron-on for professional-looking lettering, but most iron-on transfers are for white shirts only. Moving on to Plan B, I designed the text in Picmonkey (so useful!), spaced it out over two landscaped pages, and printed it out on regular printer paper. I put the newspaper inside the T-shirt and pinned the text pages in place on top.

My idea was to stencil over the letters with a black Sharpie until it bled onto the shirt, providing a guide for painting. The printer ink was too thick for that to work, but a regular black ink pen was sharp enough to break through the paper with a lot of pressure. It was also crisper than the Sharpie would have been.

Once the stenciling was finished, I carefully painted over the letters with the fabric paint (two coats). Then the shirt had to dry flat for four hours. When the paint was dry, following the instructions on the bottle, I held a steam iron just above the letters to activate the 3-D “velveteen” effect. To me, it really took the shirt up a notch!

I’m very happy with how this project turned out, and will be wearing it whenever I need a boost, and/or want to empower womankind!