Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (2024)

I was inspired by some gorgeous, iron-on rhinestone material that would be awesome for a clothing DIY without having to tediously apply individual rhinestones!

Follow along to learn how to use rhinestones on clothes.

{ "id": "8831662", "alt": "", "title": "", "video_link": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/hz3w8mgLZhk", "youtube_video_id": "hz3w8mgLZhk" }

{ "width": 634, "height": 357, "showRelated": true }

Upstyle Recommends!

Bedazzle your clothes with these highly recommended iron on rhinestone panels that Amazon reviewers swear by!

Tools and materials:

  • Iron-on rhinestone panels
  • Heat press or iron
  • Assorted garments
  • Fabric scissors
  • Fabric glue
  • Thin, scrap fabric
  • Iron
  • Chalk
  • Ruler
Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (1)

Rhinestones

Here is some inspiration to keep in mind while we test out this rhinestones on clothes experiment.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (2)

Rhinestone clothing inspiration

Rhinestone sweater

1. Brainstorm

Instead of copying the wide stripes from the inspiration photo, the plan is to cover the black stripes of my existing sweater with the rhinestones.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (3)

DIYing a rhinestone sweater

Cut your rhinestone strip, making sure it’s slightly longer than the black stripe, just in case.

I’m going to cut it 3 rhinestones wide to maintain a black border.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (4)

DIYing a rhinestone sweater

2. Align your first rhinestone strip

Set the heat press to 385 degrees. You can always go up or down or change the pressure of the clamp. If you don't have a heat press, you could use an iron instead.

I applied a bit of fabric glue, just to keep the strip in place before it’s fused in the press.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (5)

DIYing a rhinestone sweater

3. Test your heat press with the first stripe

Place your sweater inside the heat press and clamp it down, making sure each section of the strip gets pressed.

Don’t use parchment paper, like I did at first, since it stuck to the rhinestones!

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (6)

DIYing a rhinestone sweater

4. Cut more strips

Line up the rhinestone material with the other stripes to determine the right widths and cut them.

5. Line up your pieces

Lay the sweater flat and line up the rest of your rhinestone strips, centering them within the black stripes.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (8)

DIYing a rhinestone sweater

Use fabric glue to minimally tack them in place.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (9)

DIYing a rhinestone sweater

6. Attach rhinestones with the heat press

Put the bottom opening of the sweater around the bottom of the press.

Use a thin piece of scrap fabric instead of parchment paper to go between the press and the rhinestones.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (10)

DIYing a rhinestone sweater

Press the clamp down for about 30-45 seconds.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (11)

DIYing a rhinestone sweater

Continue rotating the sweater around to be able to clamp down the side seam.

At first I wasn’t sure what to do because the black stripes did not match up and they got thinner on the other side.

The result was that I no longer had a black border on this side of the sweater.

If your garment doesn’t have this issue, feel free to continue the garment.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (12)

DIYing a rhinestone sweater

Pink crew neck sweatshirt

Let’s attach iridescent rhinestones to this perfect, pink crew neck!

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (13)

Pink crew neck sweatshirt

1. Plan your layout

I’ve learned so far that the most time-consuming part of this rhinestone design is laying out your design.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (14)

DIYing pink crew neck sweatshirt

2. Prep for heat press

For transferring your garment to the heat press:

Option 1: sketch your design with chalk, lay it inside the press and then lay on the rhinestone strips.

Option 2: create your whole design while the garment lays flat. Then lightly iron it, just enough so that the rhinestones are held in place in the center portion.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (15)

DIYing pink crew neck sweatshirt

3. Press the horizontal lines

Transfer it to your heat press, insert a thin cloth and fuse the rhinestone strips for 35-40 seconds.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (16)

DIYing pink crew neck sweatshirt

Once that center portion is fused, slide it to the right or left to continue fusing until the entire length of the strips are fused to the sweatshirt.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (17)

DIYing pink crew neck sweatshirt

4. Create the caged effect

Cut thin rhinestone strips to fit in between the horizontal lines to create a vertical line at the center of the sweatshirt.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (18)

DIYing pink crew neck sweatshirt

Press them and then lay out diagonal lines for a tapered effect.

You’ll need to count the rhinestones in between to make sure you align the diagonals evenly.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (19)

DIYing pink crew neck sweatshirt

5. Press

Do one final press for the whole thing.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (20)

DIYing pink crew neck sweatshirt

What do you think of the result?

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (21)

Rhinestone pink crew neck sweater

Now that you understand the basic rhinestone pressing formula, I’ll share some more quick ideas:

Bold striped black t-shirt

I cut strips that are 3 rhinestones wide, laid them out on the t-shirt and measured to ensure they were evenly spaced.

Then I lightly ironed them so they wouldn’t shift before transferring to the heat press.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (22)

DIYing bold striped black t-shirt

I tried on the top and decided to extend the rhinestone stripes to the sleeves.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (23)

DIYing bold striped black t-shirt

Here’s how it turned out:

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (24)

Bold striped black t-shirt

I love the oversized fit of this menswear t-shirt:

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (25)

Bold striped black t-shirt

Rhinestone jeans

The rhinestone material works great on jeans too!

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (26)

DIYing rhinestone jeans

The material made it easy to cut out custom shapes to go around the holes in these jeans and the rugged, bottom hem.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (27)

DIYing rhinestone jeans

See how they look:

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (28)

DIY rhinestone jeans

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (29)

DIY rhinestone jeans

Ideas for the leftover scraps

With leftover scraps, you can cut out block letters to make other custom items.

Use chalk to draw lines that can help you center the letters on the garment:

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (30)

Rhinestone word

I cut off some extra material to make this cropped sweatshirt:

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (31)

LOVE hoodie

You can also use your heat press to attach rhinestone appliques, like this fun rainbow:

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (32)

Rainbow rhinestones

I decided to wrap it around the side of a children’s sweatshirt.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (33)

DIYing rainbow sweater

It came out so cute!

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (34)

DIY rainbow sweater

Rhinestones on clothes

Using the rhinestone sheets and a heat press makes adding rhinestones to garments so easy, and the possibilities are endless! What idea is your favorite? Comment down below.

Next, learn how to DIY an elastic corset belt.

The author may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.

Different Ways to Add Rhinestones to Your Clothes for Extra Sparkle (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Recommended Articles
Article information

Author: Laurine Ryan

Last Updated:

Views: 5648

Rating: 4.7 / 5 (57 voted)

Reviews: 88% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Laurine Ryan

Birthday: 1994-12-23

Address: Suite 751 871 Lissette Throughway, West Kittie, NH 41603

Phone: +2366831109631

Job: Sales Producer

Hobby: Creative writing, Motor sports, Do it yourself, Skateboarding, Coffee roasting, Calligraphy, Stand-up comedy

Introduction: My name is Laurine Ryan, I am a adorable, fair, graceful, spotless, gorgeous, homely, cooperative person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.