Easy Dad Gift! DIY Dad Shirts

Need some inspiration for Father’s Day or gifts for him? Make some easy Dad shirts with your kiddos handwriting on them so they can remember that age forever!

Hi Friends!! Father’s Day is coming up! Are you looking for some easy and personalized DIY gifts?

We have the tradition of giving Dad and Papa the same gift every year. My kids always make Dad shirts for them. We’ve been doing this for over 10 years now so they have a ton and it’s so cute to see how the pictures have changed!

In my tutorial before, I showed you how we made shirts by transferring the kids drawings to the shirts (read tutorial here!). However, this past year we kicked it up a notch and I transferred their own words to the shirt with iron on vinyl.

These shirts will hold up longer and not fade like the other photo transfer sheets and they are still easy to do if you have a Cricut or other electronic cutting machine.

Materials Needed for Dad Shirts

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t-shirts – I usually go to Walmart or Target and get basic white or light beige cotton t-shirts
iron on vinyl– I like SiserEasy Weed
Heat Press or an iron
Cricut Explore or other cutting machine – My Cricut is my best friend!! Check out why I love it so much and what you can make with it here!

First thing I did was had each of my kids write words that described their Dad and Papa on a blank piece of printer paper with a Sharpie.

I had them write them with space in between so they would be easy to cut around. It’s pretty funny to see some of the things they write, especially the little ones!! The contrast makes it easy to edit.

Then I scanned the papers into my computer and uploaded them to Cricut Design Space. You will need to move your cursor all over the white parts so they turn to the blue checkers.

Make sure you click on all the insides of the “e”s and “o”s and all the other letters so they will cut out.

Then save the file as a cut image.

Add it to your canvas and size them to what you want.

Then “Make It”. Click the mirror button and turn your dial to “iron on”. Once they are cut, weed off the extra vinyl and cut them into smaller pieces.

Then place them on the t-shirt where you want them to go. Use a heat press, EasyPress or iron to adhere. If you want to check out how I use a heat press, read my tutorial here!

If you’d like to check out my video tutorials on cutting, weeding and ironing on HTV click here!

That’s all there is to it! Now the special Dads in your life will have a shirt to where forever. My hubby and Dad wear the Dad shirts the kids made all the time!

If you’d like more inspiration, make sure to check out a roundup of Cricut Father’s Day gifts including a new shirt we made with Infusible Ink and drawings.