• Iron-On Transfer Printer Paper: You can get this at any office supply store. You can buy the brand-name versions if you want to pay more, but we were quite successful with the cheaper house brand from Office Max.
  
• An iron. Make sure that the face plate is clean. You'll be going over the iron-on for 45 seconds to 2 minutes, depending on the size, and you'll be pressing hard. If the faceplate isn't clean, your shirt won't be either when you're done.
  
• A flat, hard surface. Don't use an ironing board -- a clean, flat table is better.
  
• Scissors to cut out your design before you iron it on.
  
• White or light-color cotton or cotton-blend fabric that you'll iron on. T-shirts, polo shirts, aprons, totes -- a smooth knit or weave works best. This doesn't work on dark colors -- there are some special papers for those, but we haven't tried them yet.
  
  

2. Print the iron-on page on your printer, on the special iron-on paper. There is a pink stripe on one side of the paper -- that's the side you don't print on. I like to make a test print on plain paper first, since the iron-on paper is expensive per sheet.

Our iron-ons are sized so they will print on a printer connected to a WebTV/MSN TV. If you're on a PC, you have all kinds of extra settings that you can experiment with, and the iron-on paper may come with special instructions for your printer. But we had success just using the generic settings and printing from the web browser, so those special settings probably aren't necessary.

Wait! Let your print dry for 30 minutes or so before you iron it on.

3. Set up to iron on:

1. Heat the iron to the highest cotton setting (usually just below linen). Do NOT use steam.
   
2. Make sure that the fabric is spread completely flat, and has no wrinkles where you will be ironing. I like to iron the entire fabric before I start.
   
3. Cut out the iron-on from the paper, leaving about 1/8-inch of white margin around the design. You can follow the curves, if you like. I usually leave one sharp corner so that I'll be able to lift the paper off easily when I'm done.
   
4. Place your iron-on design printed side down on the fabric, and position it where you would like it.

4. Ironing: Pressing hard, go gently back and forth over your design, making sure that all parts of it have had about 45 seconds of direct heat and pressure.

For smaller graphics, where the iron pretty much covers the entire printed area, iron for about 45 seconds. For larger graphics, iron for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes. Keep the pressure on, and keep the iron moving.

Wait! Let your iron-on cool completely (5 minutes or so).

5. Peeling off the backing:

Gently stretch the fabric under your iron-on, just a little. That will cause one of the corner edges to lift enough so that you can grab it. Gently peel off the backing paper.

6. Results! Doesn't that look pro? Don't wash it until at least the next day -- washing inside-out is best to make the print last longer without fading.


We made 9 shirts in about 30 minutes, using just two sheets of iron-on transfer paper (there were 8 of the smaller logos on one sheet). You can use ordinary T-shirts, but we like collared shirts with a bit of heft. We got a dozen of them from a local T-shirt wholesaler for less than $5 each, and made enough for each of us to have several Games4TV polo shirts. Make sure you get a smooth knit -- if it is a pique (textured) knit, it won't take the iron-on well.

Want More Ideas? You can create custom wearables from just about any graphics that you find on the web, or you can even make a web page designed so that you can print it out.

But remember -- if you print directly from the web, your images for ironing on will be a mirror image of original image. If you have a PC, your printer settings may include "mirror image" and that will let you print anything. If you're on an MSN TV, be sure to choose images that don't have writing or other "directional" elements that obviously will be backward when they're ironed on.

If you want to set up a web page (PageBuilder or other) to print out some of your favorites GIFs of butterflies, angels, flowers, or whatever you like, set them up in tables with the images in the table cells. Don't put them in the cell background or page background -- by default, printers usually don't print the backgrounds. The WebTV screen is 544 wide; set up your tables to print as many images as you can, but leave at least 15 pixels of white space so you'll have an edge.

If you get creative with iron-ons, we'd love to see some snapshots!