DIY Glow In The Dark Firefly Shirt

Learn how to use glow-in-the-dark heat transfer vinyl to make an adorable glowing firefly shirt.

Did you know there are a dozen different kinds of heat transfer vinyl? There are seriously so many different types and they are all used for different projects. Today I’ve teamed up with my sponsors at Expressions Vinyl and some of my favorite bloggers to introduce you to all of the cool heat transfer vinyls out there and to give you ideas on how to use them.

I chose to highlight the glow-in-the-dark heat transfer vinyl from Expressions Vinyl. It is so fun! It cuts and is applied just like regular heat transfer vinyl, but turn out the lights and it glows!

Now let’s walk through the steps for making a glow-in-the-dark firefly shirt.

Step 1 Download the firefly and mason jar cut file from the bottom of this page. Open the file in Silhouette Studio. Ungroup the design, then drag the mason jar design off of the cutting mat to the gray background area. Load the heat transfer vinyl into the machine and cut out the fireflies. Then drag the firefly design onto the gray area and the mason jar design back onto the mat, load the colored HTV into your machine and cut it out.

Step 2 Weed excess HTV from the design so that only the fireflies and mason jars are left stuck to the clear carrier sheet. It helps to weed the intricate areas with a weeding tool, but if you don’t have one, you can use a straight pin.

Step 3 Place the mason jar onto a t-shirt with the clear carrier sheet side up. I like to measure to make sure my design is exactly centered.

Step 4 Cover the design with a clean cloth or ironing sheet, then iron the design into place (following the heat and time instructions above).

Step 5 Peel away the clear carrier sheet while it’s still hot.

Step 6 Cut the stars and fireflies apart, then arrange them on the t-shirt.

Step 7 Iron the fireflies into place and peel away the carrier sheet pieces.

And that’s all it takes!

It would be so fun to give this shirt to your kids to wear as a pajama shirt or to take camping or to a family reunion.

Download the free cut file here.

And if you’d like to show your appreciation for the free cut file, please consider signing up for my email newsletter or pinning this project to Pinterest. Thank you!