I am the T-shirt maker, for the family.  Whenever one of my nephews has a birthday party, or some other special occasion, they always want customized T-shirts.  It's always Aunt Mona to the rescue.  Luckily Avery makes a whole bunch of products designed to make this process as painless as possible.  This review is for their 8 1/2" X 11" Light Tee Shirt Transfer for Inkjet printers.

18 sheets come in the pack.  Each sheet looks like a normal piece of paper, except it's smoother, and shinier.  There are blue lines on one side - indicating the back, because it's important that you print only on the front.

The basic process is simple. 

1. Create your design using any of a number of software products.  I use MS Word, but you can just as easily use any graphic software package.  Basically, use any software you feel comfortable using, to create your image's graphics and text.  If you have nothing else at your disposal, MS Paint can be used, and should be available on any Windows machine.

Tip: Simple images, with bright colors work great.  Detailed photos can be used, but the resulting image isn't always the best.  Especially for kids' shirts, I find large clip art images, with bright, bolded text works best.

2. Print your design onto the front side of the Avery Tee Shirt Transfer sheet.  Now here's where things get tricky.  In order for the transfer to work properly, you must print the mirror image of your design.  How do you do that?  Well, the software you're using might give you the option.  It might allow you to flip the image on your screen, in which case you can just print normally.  Or, it might give you the option to leave the image as it is on the screen, but to reverse it when printing.  Check under the software's various image and print options and see if "mirror image" or "reverse image" is available.  If not, perhaps your printer, itself, has the option.  If so, you'll find the option in one of your printer configuration tabs.  Finally, there are image converter programs available for download, if you can't find any other way to covert the image.

Tip: It's worth it to print the image using the highest quality settings your printer will allow.  You want the brightest colors, and the clearest text you can get.

3. The ironing process.  Lay the T-shirt flat, and make sure it's wrinkle-free.  Lay the image printed-side down on the shirt.  Using your iron's highest heat setting, run the iron over the image so that every spot is ironed, for at least two minutes.    You'll notice a funky glue-like smell during the ironing process.  Don't worry, it's normal.  Still, those sensitive to fumes might be wary. 

Tip: I find it's OK to go over the time on the ironing, but not under.

4. The peeling process.  This part always gets me nervous.  Make sure the T-shirt and the transfer sheet are completely cooled before attempting to peel.  Then, grab one corner, and pull back on the transfer sheet.  As long as you ironed it long enough, and let it cool long enough, you should be rewarded with a perfectly-transferred image on your shirt.

Tip: If your transferred image is starting to come up from the shirt, it's not too late to fix it.   Stop the peeling process immediately, and get back to ironing.  That one corner might be a bit "irregular" in the final result, but the rest of the image should be fine.


For the most part, I have had very little trouble with these transfer sheets.  In a batch of 20 shirts, I might have to scrap one or two.  Probably because I rushed the ironing process.  But with patience, these really do work well.  Especially on light-colored shirts, with bright-colored images. The kids are always thrilled with their customized shirts, and you know what - they don't notice if there's a little "irregularity" in one corner.  They just notice the bright colors, and fun images.  And if I customize the image by including their name, then they're always extra-happy. 

Each sheet comes out to about a dollar.  That's not a lot to pay for the joy of customizing a shirt, and making a kid happy.  Sadly, the sheets are not re-usable.  So, if the kid wants 10 matching shirts so his party-mates can all have one, that's 10 sheets that have to be used.  It would be great if the sheets could be reused, but so far, that's not the case. 

Of course, as my buddy Spuds points out in the comment section, if you're making small prints (such as company logos), then you can use one sheet for more than one print.  And, as he also points out, for heaven's sake, do not iron the image while you're wearing the T-shirt!!!  Thanks, Spuds!

Update - One more thing - Decals can crack, if the shirt is not properly washed.  Washing the shirt inside-out, and drying by laying flat are two great ways to help preserve the decal.  My decals show minimal wear, even after many such washings.

Recommended: Yes