Lucky dogs? Yes, indeed! These DIY St. Patrick’s Day dog bandanas combine several of our DIY techniques. You can borrow our design, or you can easily adapt the and make your own customised DIY design. We’ve even included some options to help get you inspired. Here are all the details on our DIY St. Patrick’s Day dog bandanas. Plus, more cute pictures of these very happy looking pat-collecting pups.
Celebrating in Style!
Our DIY St. Patrick’s Day Dog Bandanas
The DIY techniques used to sew these homemade dog bandanas as well as to design, cut, and apply the custom heat transfer vinyl iron-ons for these bandanas are the same techniques used for our DIY Valentine’s Day dog bandanas. Just with a few subtle differences in the colours, font, and general styling to theme them for St. Patrick’s Day. I wasn’t kidding when I said that it is very easy to make your own custom iron-on designs. So easy that it can be a little bit addictive. Hehehe…
Unusual Celebrations
When these bandanas were made, my parents were visiting from Canada and would be here for St. Patrick’s Day. With Mom’s Irish roots, I decided special outfits were in order for the celebration. Little did I know that we’d be celebrating in semi-isolation. New Zealand hadn’t yet entered COVID lockdown, but we weren’t taking any chances, especially with my folks. Getting flights home after their original airline cancelled service was stressful enough. They couldn’t risk catching even a normal cold, lest they be denied travel for symptoms. We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at home shortly before they left, just before full lockdown. Lucky us and lucky dogs to be safe, healthy, and able to enjoy time together. With air travel upended and border restrictions, it may be a long time before we can celebrate together again.
Making DIY St. Patrick's Day Dog Bandanas (and Alternatives)
Colour Combinations
You can easily create a great DIY St. Patrick’s Day dog bandana simply by using colour and/or patterns. You can stick with classic gorgeous greens, or mix it up with complimentary colours, like we did using gold, black, and white. Those colours are perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, but versatile for other use if you aren’t using iron-ons like ours. For a cohesive looking design, use complimentary colours throughout your bandana. Avoid using strong patterns on the embellished side that could make it difficult to clearly see or read.
Our St. Patrick’s Day bandanas were sewn using plain green and plain black cotton fabric. Both fabric pieces were leftovers from my craft stash. Yep – I’m still stash busting! Although these particular bandanas are intended for wear embellished side out, the backing fabric adds a little extra structure (my fabric was quite thin). The coordinating backing and iron-on colours mean that they can be rolled or styled for wear in several different ways, as we demonstrated in our post with tips for styling DIY dog bandanas. Although black fabric is always a dangerous colour around white Dalmatian fur! Haha!
Finishing the Edges
These bandanas were made with serged edges and contrasting thread, just like our Valentine’s Day bandanas. I actually sewed them all at the same time. See our post on making dog bandanas with serged edges for full details and tips for making a bandana in the same style as the ones shown here. Serging is an incredibly quick way to whip up a basic bandana, but it does require having a suitable machine.
No serger? No worries! There are lots of other DIY dog bandana ideas in our archives, including options for sewn and no-sew bandanas. You can also use a ready-made bandana (like our personalised birthday dog bandanas) as the base for adding an iron-on or repurpose fabric napkins, handkerchiefs, or other items in a suitable size to make a bandana. Explore our archives for other DIY dog bandana ideas.
Creating a Customised Design for Cricut (or Similar)
Have a Cricut (affiliate link) or similar cutting machine? Cut files can be sourced in your cutting software (e.g. Cricut Design Space), bought from online artists and sellers, downloaded as freebies, or made yourself. It’s very easy to make your own simple designs, like the ones here, customised exactly to your own unique preferences. Learning how to do your own designs is great for DIY projects.
Creating a Custom Cricut Design File
A simple design of typography and basic shapes can be created directly in Design Space. Unless you are using a Cricut font, scripts can be annoying to work with in Design Space. However, fonts with separate letters, like these bandanas, are very easy to work with. A simple design of typography and basic shapes can be created directly in Design Space, especially when using a non-script font, like these bandanas. See our DIY Cricut dog treat bags for a step-by-step example in Design Space.
Creating Our DIY St. Patrick’s Day Dog Bandana Iron-On Designs
Although block fonts are easy in Design Space, as noted above, from personal habit/comfort, I often create and import no matter how simple the project design. Here are the design notes on the DIY St. Patrick’s Day dog bandanas shown in this post.
- In these designs, the block caps are Bebas Neue. It is free to use under the Open Font Licence. Fonts are available for free download from a number of reliable sources if you’d like to use something in particular that’s not already on your computer. One of my favourite font source sites is dafont.com (not a referral link, just sharing the love).
- In the “Pat Me I’m Irish” Bebas Neue text, I replaced the “I” letters with spaces. I then used a rectangle to create my own lover case “i” replacements that matched the Bebas Neue shape, but with a shamrock as the dots.
- In the “Lucky Dog” text, I omitted the “O” in DOG, and replaced it with a shamrock. Extra shamrocks were added as embellishments on both designs. You can use one of the shamrocks available in the Design Space image gallery or upload you own image file, either created yourself or sourced from one of the many free use sites, like Pixabay (not a referral link, just sharing the love).
- My files were imported as separate layers by colour, but if you aren’t creating directly in Design Space or using a layered file, you can easily separate any image into layer elements in Design Space by using the eraser tool when importing.
- When combining multiple elements, ensure that all resizing is equal (e.g. select all layers/elements and resize together). Double check desired size for the application before preparing to cut.
Cutting Options for Multi-Part Designs
As noted in our Valentine’s Day bandana post, depending on the design and the software/cutting machine you are using, there may be different options for efficiently cutting the different elements. The more separate elements you cut, the more efficiently the machine can position for cutting. That means less waste (yay!) but manual reassembly (boo!). Decide what works best for you and your design.
See our custom t-shirt post for more detail on creating a design and applying layered heat transfer vinyl. You can also check out our other Cricut pet crafts for more ideas and step-by-step DIY project photos. We share our examples, but individual projects will vary. When creating and applying your iron-on, follow the directions of your specific machine and materials. Woofs!
Applying a Layered Heat Transfer Iron-On Design
Once everything is cut, weeded, and ready to go, do a test layout. Confirm placement and check the best order for application if using a design with multiple separate vinyl elements and/or layered colours. Even if there are no overlapping or layered elements, there is often an order that is easier for getting your application in the right position.
My “Lucky Dog” was a very easy application as only overlapping element is the shamrock “O”, so all of the black lettering was applied and then the shamrocks were carefully layered into place. My “Pat Me I’m Irish” required more care in positioning each of the small shamrocks to dot each “i”, but the general process was the same. Since the vinyl is applied incrementally, I keep the peeled off backing for extra protection as the applied sections are incrementally layered up. I also like using a Teflon sheet over the top of everything.
Remember my reminder to double-check sizes before printing. Do as I say, not as I do. Haha! I accidently cut my St. Patrick’s Day designs a little bigger than intended for these bandanas. Oops! Lucky for me, my lucky dogs are big boys with big bandanas!
Alternative Embellishment Ideas
No cutting machine? No worries! By using classic St. Patrick’s Day colours or buying a patterned material(s), you can make a super cute bandana without any added embellishments. Really easy and also doggone dapper.
Ready made transfers and iron-ons can also make cute options, like our easy embellished no-sew heart dog bandana or monogramed initial dog bandanas. I actually have a little shamrock iron-on patch in my craft stash. Hmmm… perhaps a DIY for next year? If you reeeeeally want a ready to use custom iron-on, you can order them from online sellers. Check a site like Etsy for options.
You can also use textile ink and stamps, fabric markers, or fabric paint to create your own unique designs, like we did for our ugly Christmas sweater dog bandana. Shamrock cookie cutters make great tracing templates. Little heart shapes are easily combined to form shamrocks or lucky four-leaf clovers. They’re easy shapes for making your own homemade custom stamp, too.
