DIY Tsum Tsum Inspired Eeyore T-Shirt

When I asked my son what he wanted on a blank t-shirt I picked up at Michael’s he instantly responded – Eeyore!!! I was thinking Star Wars or a train but ok, let’s see what I can do with Eeyore.

After googling images of Eeyore I realized he is a complex character and I just could not come up with a design that was to my liking. Did I just go with a silhouette? An outline? Did I make it serious? Did I use a quote?

I was really perplexed so I decided not to think about it anymore and picked up my phone and started playing Tsum Tsum. There I was connecting multiple round Eeyores when I had the idea to make a Tsum Tsum inspired shirt. I ran it past my son and he was all in.

But I wanted to make it a little special. As I was roaming my local print shop I found it – flock heat transfer vinyl!! You know that stuff from the 1970’s that was on the back of your team uniforms? Yep – I was on the mood to make the ’70’s hip again.

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what you need to make the shirt

This Eeyore t-shirt does take some knowing your way around a personal cutter and being comfortable working with layers of vinyl. It’s not a complex patter but it will take a bit to do. So here is what you are going to need:

Cricut or Silhouette personal cutter – There is no way around this for this project. You just cannot use scissors for this.
HTV Vinyl – You will also need 4 colors. My estimates are for a child’s medium shirt.
- 12″ x 10″ piece of light purple heat transfer vinyl for the body
- 6″ x 3″ piece of pink heat transfer vinyl for the ears
- 8″ x 5″ piece of brown heat transfer vinyl for the hair and face
- 12″ x 6″ piece of gray heat transfer vinyl for face and letters (this is where I highly recommend using the gray flock heat transfer vinyl)
T-shirt – Choose a t-shirt size of your choice. If using cotton remember to wash the t-shirt before applying the vinyl to account for any shrinkage.
Teflon sheet or Parchment Paper – When heat pressing the vinyl onto the shirt this will make sure nothing sticks to anything that it shouldn’t.
Heat Press or Iron – A heat press makes thing sooooo much easier but there is no reason you can’t just use your personal iron. I use a 15×15 inch clam shell that isn’t too expensive and I have to say I love it. Make sure to get one with a digital pad for setting temperature and timer.

making all the bits and pieces

1. you need a cutting file

You do need to be pretty skilled at using a graphic design program, like Adobe Illustrator, to make this from scratch.

But it can be done and I know you could use Cricut Design Space to create a cutting file from a jpeg file. I am not as familiar with Silhouette. Here are a couple of tutorials: for Cricut Explore CLICK HERE and for Silhouette CLICK HERE that may help you if you want to give a shot.

But if you want to leave the designing up to me and you are a newsletter subscriber I have the cutting file all ready to go. (your welcome!)

Bonus - cutting files for subscribers

Tsum Tsum Inspired Eeyore To-Shirt SVG Freebie

I have created and included the svg cutting files for both the Eeyore elements. A page just for my newsletter subscribers. This way you can change them up any way you would like. Have fun.

If you would like to sign up for the newsletter CLICK HERE.

NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS CLICK HERE to access the Magical Tutorials Page to download the cutting files.

2. cutting out all those pieces

Once you have downloaded the svg cutting file, load it into your personal cutter software and re-size to the dimensions you want. Then cut away.

determining the size of HTV needed

Hint: The “stitching” (lines) on Eeyore’s face is really tiny on the two smallest Tsum Tsums. Regular vinyl setting for cutting will not work. I recommend using the washi tape setting.

use ‘washi tape/paper’ setting to cut the fine lines

Hint: If you are using flock heat transfer vinyl you will find it is slightly thicker than vinyl. I tried multiple setting but in the end found that cutting twice using the vinyl setting worked best.

cut as a mirror image

Hint: When you cut out heat transfer vinyl (HTV) remember to always cut in mirror mode. You will be flipping the cut onto t-shirt and you don’t want to waste HTV by cutting it right side up.

staging all the bits and pieces

Once you have all the parts cut out start to weed. As you know I love this part… so sit back and enjoy that zen feeling of just pulling away all the extra bits of vinyl.

weeding the vinyl

Hint: Flock vinyl is a bit tougher to weed. Seems that vinyl really wants to stay attached to the plastic backing. The problem is that is will also have a tendency to tear. So be careful pulling at it and hold down your elements as you pull apart.

be careful weeding flock vinyl

Hint: Take care when weeding the thin elements for Eeyore’s face as they can easily break. Use a tool to hold down the thin strip as you pull off the extra vinyl. Don’t worry if it moves. You can move it back later or let it be off a bit to allow for a bit of character in your design.

be careful when weeding around think elements

putting it all together

Finally we are ready to put the t-shirt together. If you don’t have a heat press, do not worry. A home iron works just fine.

Hint: If using a iron to apply the HTV do a test first. You want your iron dry and hot (I found cotton setting was my sweet spot) but at the same time too hot will damage the vinyl. Also you will need to apply A LOT of pressure. I would place the shirt on a tile floor and then apply my full body weight as pressure. Took about 30 seconds per area doing it this way.

For this image you are going to have to apply in layers. Place the bottom layer of heat treansfer vinyl (HTV) on top of the shirt. Place the teflon sheet or parchment paper on top as protection and heat press away. The heat press set at 310 degrees should take 12 seconds to complete.

Remove transfer tape (the plastic coating on top of the vinyl) and lay down second layer of heat treansfer vinyl (HTV) and repeat applying hear. If you can add multiple items on at one time go ahead and do that.

Repeat this step until all layers have been applied. Flip shirt over and repeat.

applying the vinyl in layers

Hint: For the flock heat transfer vinyl you will need to apply heat for a bit longer. 15 seconds worked well for the heat press. Also, when removing the plastic backing take care to not tear the flock vinyl.