Okay, so I’ve been wanting a Courtney Love t-shirt for, like, forever. I finally decided to just make one myself. It seemed easy enough, right? Famous last words.
Finding the Right Image
First, I spent hours, and I mean hours, scrolling through Google Images. I wanted that perfect picture of Courtney – you know, the one that screams “I don’t give a…” well, you get it. I finally found one I liked, a classic black and white shot from the 90s. She’s got that signature messy blonde hair and the perfect amount of smudged eyeliner.
I saved the photo to my computer.
The T-Shirt Transfer Debacle
Next up, I headed to the craft store. I grabbed some iron-on transfer paper, the kind you print on with your regular inkjet printer.I also bought a plain white t-shirt. I thought about a black one, but i changed my mind.
Seemed simple enough.I came back home.
Back home, I carefully read the instructions on the transfer paper package. Like, three times. I didn’t want to mess this up. I printed the image onto the transfer paper – making sure to mirror it first, because, duh, that’s what the instructions said. It looked pretty good, surprisingly.
Then came the ironing. Oh, the ironing. This is where things went a little sideways. I placed the transfer paper image-side down onto the t-shirt, just like the instructions said. I heated up my iron, no steam, and started to press down. I followed to wait for a few minutes according to the introductions.
Almost There (But Not Quite)
I carefully peeled back the transfer paper… and… some of it stuck. Like, really stuck. Parts of Courtney’s face were on the shirt, parts were still on the paper. It looked… well, it looked like a hot mess. A very hot mess, because I may have also slightly scorched the shirt in my panic.
I tried to salvage it. I really did. I re-ironed some spots, tried to peel off the stuck bits with tweezers… nothing worked. It was a lost cause.
Success (Eventually!)
Undeterred (and slightly smelling of burnt cotton), I decided to try again. I still had some transfer paper left. I reprinted the image, this time being extra careful with the mirroring. I grabbed a different t-shirt from my drawer, and got back to the ironing board.
I iron it.
This time, I was super cautious. I ironed slowly and evenly, making sure to apply plenty of pressure. And when I peeled back the paper… it worked! There she was, Courtney Love, in all her glorious, slightly-wrinkled-from-the-ironing-process glory.
Finally,I made it!
So, yeah, it took two tries, a minor scorching incident, and a whole lot of patience, but I finally have my DIY Courtney Love t-shirt. And you know what? It’s perfect. Because I made it. And it has character. And maybe a slight burnt smell. But mostly, it’s awesome.
