Tie T-Shirt Transfer Fail

I'm always hesitant to post about my failures but hey... who hasn't had  a project go terribly wrong on them, right?


With my nephew's 100 day celebration approaching and the decorations done, I wanted to do one last thing for him!


I've seen these tie onesies around the internet a lot and always wanted to get some for my nephews but never got around to it. I did consider making some but... never got around to that either... until now! I saw this post from Made by Lori which finally kicked me into gear.

Made by Lori

Aren't they SO adorable?? I didn't have enough time to purchase these from Lori so I went the cheap route and against my better judgement, decided to do a little t-shirt iron on transfer.


I say "against my better judgement" because a couple years ago I got t-shirts made for my nephews at a local shop but after a couple months Big Moon and Lil' Moon had become Big Mo and Lil' Mo. There goes $60...


If "professionally" made t-shirts failed, surely my homemade ones would too...but that was OK. The boys grow so fast anyways, if they lasted a couple weeks at a fraction of the cost of the "professional" ones, that would be just fine, right? 


NO. 

I knew this was not a good idea but... I pushed for it. Even when I went to Michael's TWICE to buy the transfers only to realize I left my wallet at home (yes, both times!)... I pushed through.


Now...I don't believe in coincidences. I truly believe God was telling me to STOP and not waste my time or money on this. But....I'm REALLY stubborn. 


Third time's the charm, right? I finally made it to Michael's, with my wallet, and got these transfers:

They were the cheapest ones and I had my 40% off coupon so it wasn't THAT much of a cost... right?


I downloaded some FREE patterns from Aimee at Sprik Space and printed out some ties. I thought it would be super cute if all 3 boys wore a tie t-shirt at the party. 


When I printed them, I was disappointed. Colours on my new printer always comes out washed out compared to what's on the computer screen...Why?! I do not know...And these were REALLY washed out. I should have stopped here.


BUT since I am lil' ms. stubborn... I pressed on.


Literally.


Sure iron-on transfers are easy. But finicky... 


The onesies came out OK... 

Life: Designed

Life: Designed

Then things went downhill. Fast.

Life: Designed

What the heck?! 


The paper just would NOT transfer. As you can see, the paper even turned brown because I had ironed that thing for so long! 

Life: Designed

The other t-shirt didn't fair so well either. So close....


Take two: (I changed the colours a bit to make them stand out a bit more).

Life: Designed

Arg... at least this time the transfer took to the shirts... but still I'm not happy with the results. OH and I mixed up the shirts! The orange tie is smaller and should be on the smaller shirt. Double, triple, quadruple arg!


I'll still probably force the boys to wear them... just for one picture. 


Sigh...


Unless you're a pro at t-shirt transfers or a pro sewer, I highly recommend saving time and grief and order them from someone who knows what they are doing such as Lori! Her tie shirts aren't on her Etsy store yet but you can email her for a custom order! 


I'm going to talk to my sister about getting some! 


Have you had any luck (or not) with iron on transfers? 


If you have any tips, I'd LOVE to hear them- not that I'm keen on making these again anytime soon...but who knows? After all, I am super stubborn!  =)