Since Instagram dominates as one of the most popular photography apps, it gets a lot of 3rd party attention. Before it’s API was even public developers were trying to use it and launch websites.  I tried to keep up with the 3rd party vendors and developers with the Instagram Ecosystem post here, but it quickly became a job all unto it’s own.  I can only imagine the number of 3rd party sites using the Instagram API now for websites and product creation.  One such site will sell you your own iPhone photography (shared via instagram) on a t-shirt.  I didn’t know about this 3rd party service until I went to the iPhone Photography workshop at CreativeLive and Jack Hollingswoth asked if I went through “insta-tees” or whatever it’s called.  Instead of relying on one of these sites, I’d like to share how to make your own Instagram t-shirt! Or, at least share how I made some t-shirts with instagram photos for Ryan (follow Ryan on Twitter too) and for myself as well.

As great as sharing your iPhone photography on instagram can be, I love to bring photography out of the digital world and give it a new lease on life. We bring it to life in a tangible way.  Prints are great but wearing your own Instagram work is pretty cool.

On one side of my family, we decided that the Christmas gifts this year had to me handmade.  We draw names around October (Canadian Thanksgiving) and plan from there.  I got Ryan’s name and I was stumped for a while until Marika mentioned that I could make him T-Shirts.   What a great idea: Create a couple of t-shirts for Ryan using his own Instagram images.  I was still within the homemade gift rule but I didn’t want to impose my own photography on him and thought it would be more personal using his own that I liked a lot.

Anyways, here is what you’ll need, directions, steps, and all I did.

How to Make Your Own Instagram T-Shirt

Requirement: You’ll need to be an Instagram Fanatic or be making the t-shirt for one

Let’s first start off with the items you’ll need to create your own t-shirt:

Step #1: Choosing Your Instagram Image(s)

Step #1 might be the most difficult part for some of you.  In this step you’re selecting the Instagram photo that you’ll be printing out for transfer onto the tee.  You can find your own Instagram photo in a number of ways, but I prefer to look at them on a desktop and in a grid layout.  This allows me to see my Instagrams holistically and my favorites jump out.  With this tutorial, I was actually looking at Ryan’s Instagram feed to find a couple photos that popped out to me.  I used Extragram for this purpose!  Now, I would probably use Webstagram as I found it is a bit getter and links to the photo on Instagram.

I chose these 2 Instagram images by Ryan to create the T-shirts:

Step #2: Resizing and Printing and Prepping Your Instagram Photo(s)

In step #2, you’re essentially printing out your chosen Instagram image(s), but you might need to resize the image first – I did. You can use any program you’re comfortable with to resize an image.   The images posted to Instagram are 612×612 pixels and when I printed it out for the t-shirt, I found it a little too large.  I resized the image to 500×500 pixels and printed on 8.5″x11″ paper to test it out.  When it looked okay, I put in the iron-on transfer paper into the printer and printed it off.

If you can’t find the iron-on transfers locally, you can find good deals on Amazon for these too: HP Iron-On Transfers, 8.5 x 11 Inch, 12 Pack 

You’ll also need to prep your transfers now.  This means using the exacto knife to nicely remove the excess transfer paper from around the photo.

Step #3: Iron your blank T-Shirt

If you don’t know where to get blank t-shirts, you have a number of options. The easiest t-shirts to find are going to be white or black. Costco has really great deals on these black and white logo free t-shirts.  After Christmas, Old Navy had a big sale and I found colour shirts that were logo free and used these for the shirts I made myself before going to CreativeLive.  If you can’t find colour logo free shirts locally or for a decent price locally, you can always check out Amazon.

Crew Neck: American Apparel Unisex 50/50 Crew Neck

V Neck: American Made Apparel Short Sleeve Deep V-Neck Tee

Once you have the shirt, iron it out so that there are no wrinkles and creases. After this, put the ironing board away.  You won’t be using it to iron on your Instagram photo.  This is a key point I discovered on my own.   You’re going to want a hard surface to iron your photo onto the shirt.

Step #4: Set up the Transfer

On a hard surface – a table, floor, whatever – you’re going to lay the pillowcase down.  The pillowcase is pretty much to protect your underneath hard surface, but still have the ability to press your weight down on that surface. Next you’ll be following the instructions on your iron-on transfer paper, but it’s probably the same as what I did.  I turned on the iron and made sure the steam function was off.  I contacted my wife for insurance on this part.

Lay your t-shirt down over the pillowcase where you want the Instagram photo to be placed.  Next, I just had to peel off the iron-on transfer paper from the image and place it over where I wanted it on the shirt.  I didn’t have to place it backwards or anything. I just put it down how I wanted it and then placed the parchment paper over top.   The parchment paper is what’s used to transfer the heat and image to the shirt without ruining the entire thing

Step #5: Ironing on the Instagram Photo!

This is the fun part of the process and takes a minute or so.  You’ll place the hot iron on the parchment paper and put all your bodyweight onto it for about 20 seconds.  After the 20 seconds is up, you’ll lift the iron up and place it back down over another area of the transfer. You won’t iron it like you would have in step #1 to just get the wrinkles out.  You’ll do this until you’ve covered the image entirely.  Make sure to read the instructions of your iron-on transfer sheets as I get the feeling they might change a little depending on brand.

The parchment paper is translucent and allows you to see the Instagram image partically.

The parchment paper would curl up a bit after the image has been transfered to the t-shirt.  Just work with it and move on to the next portion of the image – your work is about to pay off

Step #6: Enjoy your Instagram DIY T-Shirt

You’re done! You now have 2 totally unique t-shirts that were created from your own iPhone photography and Instagram. I apologize for the semi-blurred photos – I wasn’t sure I was going to create this tutorial at the time.  I hope to get Ryan to wear them and snap a photo to update the post in the future.

What about washing that fancy new Instagram tee?

As I mentioned, I made a number of shirt before going to CreativeLive.  I have since washed the t-shirts a number of times and the image is still great. I actually look forward to them wearing a bit and getting that worn in vintage type look.  I’m super impressed with the shirts of mine after washing, but I’ll probably do a follow up post soon enough with images of mine.

Are You Going to Make Your Own Instagram T-Shirt?