home decor and crafts sewing and textiles

DIY Custom Hoodies For Summer Fun

by Jen @ RamblingRenovators - 5:30 AM

The Seasonal Simplicity summer tours hosted by Krista at The Happy Housie continue and today my blogger friends and I are sharing summer DIYs and crafts. I've got a super fun project to share today that's good for summer or any time of the year.

diy custom hoodie, custom printed hoodie, diy custom hoodies for family

What's your summer uniform? For my 12 year old, it's shorts, a favourite breathable cotton t-shirt, and a hoodie for cool mornings or chilly nights.

Chloe has grown about six inches in the last year so she was desperately in need of some new clothes for summer. I thought it would be fun to make her her own custom hoodie with the name of our cottage resort, East Lake Shores, on it. This is a great item to have from spring to fall and a unique way to celebrate places that are special to you.

Getting custom printed clothing isn't as difficult as it looks. Technology has made it easy to create your own DIY custom hoodies and other clothing too and be ready for all sorts of summer fun.

Print On Demand Clothing

Are you familiar with print-on-demand (POD)? It's a process whereby items are printed only once an order has been made, often without order minimums.

In the past, if you wanted say t-shirts printed with a custom logo, you would have to go through two steps in the process: the logo design process, and the printing process.

First, you'd meet with a graphic designer to design you a logo, go through revisions, then finalize the design.
Then you would have to visit a printer. Once you confirmed that he had the t-shirts you wanted in stock, you'd place a mininum order, wait a few weeks for printing, and then pick up your dozen or so t-shirts.

Nowadays, you get your own printed clothing much more easily and quickly. There are applications and sites to help with both the logo design and printing, even if you are not graphically or technologically inclined!

Here's how I created my DIY Custom Hoodie.

how to design custom hoodie, diy custom hoodie, custom print hoodie canada

Logo Design Using Canva

If you are creating any sort of graphic design - from logos to resumes to Instagram story layouts - the program you should be using is Canva. Canva is my absolute favourite program. It has a free version that is robust enough for most basic design work. It makes me feel like a graphic designer and takes the fear out of designing.

You don't have to be creative or artistic to use canva. The preset templates, suggested font pairings, layouts, and drag and drop elements are super easy to use. To create a logo:

Type "logo" into the search bar
Create your logo design. You can

Use one of their pre-designed logos as a starting point, or
Create a blank logo from scratch, or
Use this logo template I created and modify as needed

Whatever method you choose, ensure that your file is at least 1500 by 1500px so that it is suitable for printing. Resize your file (top left menu bar) if needed.

Once you've created your design, you'll need to download it as a PNG file. Click the Download button, select PNG as a file type, slide the file size to 4500 x 4500px (this will allow you to resize your logo if needed and maintain resolution quality), and click Transparent background. Now that you have your design file, you're ready to put this design on clothing.

Selecting A Print On Demand (POD) Supplier

There are an abundance of POD sites out there that can print your design on items. Let me make some distinctions:

Print on demand Service:

These sites allow you to create designs that can be printed on objects and clothing. You can create and buy these items for your own personal use, or create them to sell in your own online shop. Examples are Printful or Printify. These sites often integrate easily with shopping platforms (e.g. Shopify), making the process of designing and selling in your own shop seamless.

Print on demand Marketplace:

These sites are places to either (a) create and sell your designs printed on objects, or (b) shop as a consumer for designs created by other people. Examples are Redbubble and Society6. You cannot sell the items you create in your own online shop; they are available for sale only on the POD site. You don't have to sell your designs either - you can design your own products, keep them private, and purchase them without the retail markup for your own use.

Most POD marketplaces offer t-shirts and hoodies, but where these sites differ is in both the variety and quality of products they offer and shipping costs. If you want to compare, add an item to your online cart and proceed through the checkout process to see shipping costs.

As an artist, I have both Redbubble and Society6 shops. I find that Society6 is great for things like prints (I have this one hanging in my office) and certain products like my plaid outdoor mats. Redbubble is where I sell clothing. I've been really happy with the quality and fast shipment of Redbubble's clothing.

Why create a Redbubble shop?

You might be wondering why you should create a Redbubble shop, if you're planning to only use these items for personal use and not sell them.

I think that it's handy to have a shop for those times when you want a custom design. Here's a few ways you can use personally your shop:

- create a custom baby onesie to celebrate a first birthday

- create your own throw pillow covers for each season

- create a set of custom tote bags for a girls weekend getaway

- create matching family t-shirts for a vacation or family reunion

You can keep your design Private and still purchase it, if you don't want to share your work with anyone!

How to create a custom print hoodie in Redbubble

Create your account on Redbubble. Sign up as an Artist.
Select Add New Work and upload your design file.
Enable only the product you want. For example, I only wanted to print my design on a hoodie so I enabled Standard Print Clothing. I kept all other products Disabled.
Click Edit on the product. You will see a mockup your design on the item. Change the product style (e.g. t-shirt, long sleeve, hoodie) to see how your design looks on various items.
Optimize your design placement and size for the exact item you want. For example, if you want a small logo on a t-shirt, position your design like this:

Or if you want a larger logo centred on a hoodie, position your design like this:
Once you have finalized the size and layout, set your design to Only you (private) and click Save Work.

diy custom hoodie, custom printed hoodie redbubble, diy custom hoodies for family

You'll now be brought to the design preview page. Click View in the top right corner to go to the design shopping page. Select the product you want and add it to your cart.

Artist Discount on Redbubble

Since you created the artwork featured on the product, you'll automatically get the product without the retail markup. Note that on the shopping page the hoodie is $46.78 CAD, but when I go into my cart, it automatically gives me the artist discount and shows as $40.34 CAD.

Furthermore, you can apply coupons to get even more discounts. Sign up for their newsletter to get a 10% coupon. I did a quick search and found coupon 11FORYOU which gives an 11% discount. I also like to use the Honey app to find coupons for me - it saves me lots when I'm shopping online!

At the time I purchased, I had found a 20% coupon so my hoodie only cost me about $45 CAD including shipping and taxes. It only took 3 days from ordering until the hoodie landed on my doorstep!

This is the lightweight hoodie in Grey and I think the quality and printing are really good. It's held up to washing and the colours are nice and bright.

Most importantly, my tween loves wearing it. It's her designated cottage hoodie and it travels with her from beach to campfire.

What do you think? Are you tempted to make your own custom printed clothing?

summer diy ideas, summer craft ideas, diy crafts for summer

This week I'm joining some of my talented blogging friends for the Summer Seasonal Simplicity Series: DIY/Craft Project Hop. Be sure to check out all of the creative summer DIY ideas by visiting the links under the images below.