You’ve probably seen the cute maternity t-shirts that have funny slogans like “I’m a Baby Machine.” Sometimes the shirts feature puns or funny pictures. The only problem I had with these shirts when I was pregnant was how expensive they are. Some of the shirts I found were running for $40. That is just too much for a shirt that I’m only going to wear a few times during the next 6 months.
Making your own funny t-shirts is easy if you have a few basic, solid color maternity shirts and iron-on-transfer paper for your ink jet or laser printer. They sell transfer paper for both light and dark colored fabrics. The hardest part of making your own shirts is coming up with the unique and clever phrases or pictures to put on them.
Start out by browsing the available t-shirts on the web for ideas. Recreate designs you like in a program like Microsoft Paint or Adobe Photoshop. If you have a scanner, you could draw your design by hand and scan it for printing onto the transfer paper.
Before you print, double check that you have changed your printer settings so it will print the page as a mirror image. If you forget to do this step, you will find yourself with a backwards design on your shirt. Certain pictures may be able to be flipped, but if words are involved, no one is going to get the message you’re sending.
Another way to make your own shirt is through iron-on adhesive letters, which you can buy at pretty much any craft store. These will make your shirt look like it is embroidered and if you are only planning on using words on your shirt, it is going to look more professional than an iron-on-transfer. It will definitely be more color fast, since transfers tend to fade in the wash.
Here are some of my favorite slogans for maternity t-shirts:
“Coming Soon…”
“Body by Baby”
“Due in [Month]”
“Have You Seen My Toes?”