Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something.  Please check out our disclosure policy for more details.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve had the time to sit down and write! Summer around here has been crazy on the farm with hay season, new animals, and sewing projects filling in the rest of the time.

The other day I realized that summer is almost over and J will be starting preschool in under a month! I can’t even believe it! As I was perusing his school supply list, I noticed that on it was an art smock. After looking around a little, I realized that I could easily make one of my own! So I went on Pinterest in search of a free pattern and found this great one from The DIY Mommy.  You can find the pattern here.

In her tutorial, she uses a pre-laminated cotton fabric. I didn’t have any on hand and I was wanting to use these amazing art print scraps from Rockerbye Destash instead, so I decided to laminate my own! So in search of clear vinyl I went. I ended up using Heat n Bond’s clear vinyl in Matte but they also have gloss available as well.  I found both of them on Amazon.

//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=craftingagain-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B00114QDMI&asins=B00114QDMI&linkId=d8f2f30925c48725774456a80a18e77b&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=true&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff

Once you’ve chosen your fabrics and clear or gloss vinyl, you will cut out your pattern pieces from your fabric and then from your vinyl.  I only laminated the outside of J’s smock, but you could easily do both sides. The pocket piece I added is laminated on both sides.

Next, you will head on over to your ironing board and iron. Set your iron to the wool setting and while it’s preheating, peel the paper backing off of your vinyl piece. Lay your vinyl, sticky side down, on the right side of your fabric, making sure to line up the edges. Then lay the paper piece you just pulled off, shiny side down, on top of the vinyl.

Take your iron and with medium pressure, press down for 8 seconds moving slowly until you have covered the entire piece.  Flip your fabric over so the wrong side is facing up and again with medium pressure, press for 4 seconds moving slowly until the entire piece is covered.  Peel the paper off of the front of your fabric and lay flat to cool.  Once your pieces are cooled, you can sew your smock together following the instructions from The DIY Mommy!

I got a little creative with mine and added a little applique with Heat Transfer Vinyl to the back of J’s before laminating the fabric as well as a pocket.  As soon as it came off the sewing machine J was asking if he could try it out with his new paints and how could I say no!?

Now that I’ve done it, I can’t wait to try laminating more projects such as booties, rain jackets, hats, etc.  What other projects would you like to try to laminate?