Yoda Father's Day Shirt

This a sponsored post with Expressions Vinyl and may contain affiliate links.

Make dad a Yoda Father's Day Shirt with HTV from Expressions Vinyl and free cut file!

My daughter and I have given my husband a superhero shirt of some kind for every Father's Day since she was born. We've also given hime some for Christmas, birthday, and just for fun. Needless to say, we're starting to run out of t-shirt options.

For this Father's Day, we decided together that we would MAKE him his very own shirt instead. Yoda from Star Wars may not be your traditional superhero, but he IS pretty awesome!! So with some help from Expressions Vinyl, Cricut, and our incredible love of puns, we were able to create the coolest shirt in the galaxy for the best dad ever!!

All you need to make this shirt is a blank gray (or white) t-shirt, Stretch Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) (black and green apple), and a cutting machine like the Cricut Explore Air 2.

Upload the Yoda Father's Day Shirt cut file into Design Space and size the image to fit your shirt. Don't forget to mirror the image before cutting!!

*Here's a great tutorial on how to upload your own images into Cricut Design Space.

After the vinyl has been cut, you'll need to "weed" the vinyl. Start by carefully peeling away excess vinyl (or the largest parts of the design that you won't be using) with your fingers. For smaller areas like the insides of letters you'll need to use a weeding tool.

Now the design is ready to be placed on the shirt! The heat transfer vinyl has a tacky liner on top of it so that you can place the vinyl on your project and keep it in place. I often have trouble getting the vinyl centered on the shirt, so I've been using this little trick to save me some time.

Fold the shirt in half and iron to make a crease down the center of the shirt. Fold the HTV liner in half and make a crease at the top and bottom of the liner (NOT the vinyl). Line up the HTV liner fold marks on the crease in the shirt. Voila! Now your vinyl is centered! Press the liner down so it sticks well to the shirt.

Getting the vinyl to stick to your shirt is easy!

1. Set your iron to the cotton/linen setting with the steam OFF.
2. Lightly preheat the area with the iron for 10-15 seconds. This really does help!
3. Place your HTV liner side UP on the shirt. You can iron over the liner, or place a light cloth on top.
4. Apply medium pressure with the iron for 15 seconds.
5. Flip the shirt over and apply medium pressure with the iron to the back for an additional 20 seconds.
6. Carefully peel up a corner of the HTV liner. If you have any vinyl that didn't stick or if edges are flipping up, press the liner back down and re-iron the pieces or loose edges with the iron tip for 10 seconds.
7. Peel up the liner while it's still hot, or you can let it cool first if you are worried about burning your fingers.

My daughter and I really enjoyed making this shirt and are thinking of even more ideas for fun superhero shirts to make for him in the future! The vinyl holds up great in the wash. If your vinyl appears to be coming off at all, you can iron over it again (with a cloth on top) and it should re-stick.

Grab the Yoda Father's Day Shirt cut file* to make the dad in your life a shirt of his own!

*My cut file images are free for personal use. If you are wanting to sell products made with this cut file, please contact me to purchase a commercial license.

What Father's Day project would you make with vinyl?