DIY Gilmore Girls Luke’s Diner Shirt

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ONE WEEK!!  ONE WEEK FRIENDS until Gilmore Girls Revival is here in all it’s glory!  You are going to need something special to wear on this special day nine and a half years in the making.  We’re going to hook you up with (if instagram is to be believed) our most popular project to date – your very own DIY Gilmore Girls Luke’s Diner Shirt!!! (cue applause and cheers!)
Recently I had some of my nieces over for a sleepover and we wanted something fun to do the next day.  My girls have been more than a little obsessed with how easy it is to make custom shirts with some iron-on vinyl and the Cricut Explore Air 2 and it took them about 0.02 seconds to decide that they needed shirts for the Gilmore Girls Revival.  They were so excited they invited their cute friend over to join them in the making of the shirts and got right to work picking out what they wanted their shirts to say (it should be noted these cute girls are 13, 14, 15, and 16 and quite literally obsessed with Gilmore Girls…more specifically maybe being who will Rory choose in the revival).
They came up with a whole collection of different quotes from the shows or images we needed to recreate but once one image was found and the first shirt was completed all other ideas went out the door and everyone wanted their very own Luke’s Diner t-shirt.  There is maybe nothing more iconic about Gilmore Girls than Luke’s Diner and the owner of the joint.  I love that while there theories flying around all over about weither Rory will choose Dean, Jess, or Logan (can we just all agree that Dean doesn’t really stand a chance?…) there is no question on who Lorelai should commit to give her heart to (#TeamLuke).

You’re going to love me for how easy this shirt is to create (I know the directions get wordy but it’s not hard I promise, I just wanted to make sure I was walking you through step by step).  My directions are for using Cricut Design Space, if you’re using another personal cutting machine I’m sorry, I’m hoping having the image will put you well on your way.

DIY Gilmore Girls Luke’s Diner Shirt Supply List:
T-shirt of choice
Iron-on Vinyl of choice
Cricut Explore Air 2 (or other personal cutting machine)
Iron/Ironing Board
Luke’s Diner image

Start by downloading this image.  Because it was sent to me by one of the girl’s I am not sure where it came from she found it out in the great wide web a while ago, if it is yours please let me know so I can properly link to you!
Once you have the photo downloaded open Cricut Design Space.
Click “create new project”.
Along the left side click “upload images”.
From there again click “upload image”.
Click browse and find your file then click “simple image”.
Click the select and erase tool and then click on the mug (both the yellow and brown mug pieces leaving the words Luke’s and Stars Hollow Connecticut) – after clicking on the yellow of the mug you may find it easier to erase the brown mug shadow by using the eraser tool.
Click continue and save as a cut image.  You should then see the file saved on the next screen.
Now you’re going to click “upload image” again selecting again the same file and clicking “simple image”.
This time you’re going to use the eraser tool to erase “Stars Hollow, Connecticut”
Click “continue”, click “save as cut image”
From the next screen you’re going to click both of your images and click “insert images”.
To make things easier I immediately change the color of the mug so I can see the two pieces even when they’re layered on top of each other.
From here you have some options, I slide the mug all the way to the upper left hand corner and then slide the Luke’s over the top of it, you can adjust the size of your words at this point if you want.
Once you have things layered like you want (don’t worry about overall size at this point we have a few more steps before we get there). On the right toolbar click both the mug and the words and then at the top click “slice”.  This is going to (weirdly, I still don’t understand it) make it so you can remove the word Luke’s from the mug (it creates 2 layers of Luke’s) make sure you pull them both off and delete them.  Then change the color of Stars Hollow, Connecticut to match your mug, once you’ve done that again on the right side toolbar click both layers and then click “attach” this will make them one image and you can cut it all out in one cut.  You can also from here resize the whole image as big/small as you want.  Our image for adult sized small and medium shirts is about 9″ across.
Once your image is the size you want you’re ready to cut that bad boy out (can I recommend to save here, I always stress something is going to get messed up so take a second and save your project).  When you get to the cut screen make sure you mirror your image and set your machine to whatever type of iron-on vinyl you’re using (glitter, lite, flock, etc).
When you’re image is cut out you can the weed the image (removing all vinyl you don’t want on your shirt) and then get to applying.
Every type of iron-on vinyl will include instructions on the best way to apply it to fabric.  My best tip for you is to make sure your fabric is warmed up by the iron before you place your vinyl on it and then to err on the side of caution, very slowly remove the plastic backing to make sure your vinyl is well attached before pulling it all the way off and heating from the front and back and then front and back again to make sure it is really well attached.
Personally I always wash items with iron on vinyl inside out and hang to dry, just my own way of making sure it lasts forever.
So now you’re ready to enjoy Gilmore Girl’s Revival in true Gilmore Girl’s style.  We’ve changed Black Friday to Gilmore Girl’s Day and we’ve got a whole lot of fun planned for binge watching and you can bet wearing our DIY Gilmore Girls Luke’s Diner Shirt is the first step for a fun night.
Seriously, could they be cuter in their shirts.  Love the way they turned out.  Please share with us if you make one of your own, we’d love to see it!