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.
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

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NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS CLICK HERE to access the Magical Tutorials Page to download the cutting files.
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.
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.
your masterpiece
Once the t-shirt has cooled you are all ready to go. As you can see someone was very happy with his shirt. (yes, that goofball is my son).
Oh my gosh – that was quite a project! But, the finished product is ADORABLE! I love Tsum Tsums, so I think it’s perfect. I don’t think I have the patience to attempt it on my own, though.