DIY Project: Make Your Own Election Day Shirts

Not sure if you knew this yet, but today's election day! Since we'll probably be spending a few hours in line waiting to cast our vote we thought we should do it in style (and while shouting out some fashionable propaganda). Last night we went to Office Max and picked up some iron-on transfers. We then found an image on 30 Reasons, which we posted about two weeks ago, that we printed using our Lexmark All-in-One printer. There were some mishaps, which we get into after the jump, but we're happy to say they we now have an Obama shirt that did not cost us $60.

First we didn't realize we needed to select the "iron-on transfer" option in our printer cue in order to have the image print flipped (the paper we got requires that the image is flipped as you place it ink side down when you iron it on). Then our Lexmark was having a hard time gripping the paper, so we ended up with a half scalped Barack in one snafu.
Finally, we got our print just right and cut it out using an xacto knife and ruler.
Once we started to iron on the sheet we realized that DIY iron-ons aren't mistake proof. Our first attempt didn't seem to stick just right so that when we went to peel the backing the image ripped. We tried to fix these rips by re-ironing using the peel away backing but ended up fracking up the shirt a bit more.
So we decided to try again, now using what we've learned about pressure and time needed with the iron. Second time's a charm.
We're off to the polls! Wish us luck!

photos: soniaz

Comments (4)

I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to wear shirts with a political message or slant to the polls.

posted by piekid on November 4th 2008 at 9:35am
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While you can't wear shirts or pins with political messages inside the polling place, no one seemed to bother me about my shirt waiting in line to get into the polling station.

posted by lil' soso on November 4th 2008 at 10:35am
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I printed out about 15 of the 30 reasons posters on my large format epson last night to decorate for our election party. I got so many great compliments - 30 reasons is about the coolest election site i've seen and I'm so stoked that freely and easily offered the full-size 11x17 pdfs for download.

Thanks 30 reasons!

nice shirts, too, and GO OBAMA!!!!! :)

posted by mbarilla on November 5th 2008 at 11:59am
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nice tattoos

posted by animalcracker on November 10th 2008 at 6:16am
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