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Origami Shirt Cards

This how-to makes the cutest Father's Day, Birthday, or Just-For-Fun origami cards.

Origami shirts hanging on twine

For Father's Day I normally have the kids do some sort of handprint/footprint art to give to my husband with his breakfast. This year I decided to do something a little different and found some fun origami shirts on Pinterest. What a win! It was the perfect blend of Japanese culture and American culture as we celebrated Father's Day.


Two girls holding up a string of origami shirt cards for their dad.

While I did all of the folding (our kids are still too young to follow origami instructions), I had them draw pictures on the inside. I also finally got to use some of those spare buttons I save in a jar but never use. The girls picked out the buttons for their shirts and glued them down themselves.


What's fun about this craft is that it works on a number of different types of paper. We used construction paper, but in hindsight, I would have used cardstock instead since it's sturdier. I also would have used craft sticker dots on the buttons instead of glue since they're not as messy. We'll use this origami design again with:

  • Poster Board (a GIANT shirt)

  • Wrapping Paper

  • Paper Money

We strung our origami shirt cards on a twine clothesline with mini clothespins. It really tied it all together. We hope that you and your family have fun with this origami how-to!


Origami Shirt Instructions

  1. Start with a rectangular piece of paper

  2. Place the patterned side face-down*

  3. Fold paper in half, with blank sides touching, and crease

  4. Open paper back up then fold half of one side to touch the middle crease

  5. Repeat on other side

  6. With the crease facing up, fold part of the bottom up no more than 1" (this will be the collar of your shirt)

  7. Flip paper over then fold collar so that one corner touches the middle of the paper

  8. Repeat on other side

  9. On opposite end of paper, fold out one corner (this will be one of the shirt sleeves)

  10. Repeat on other side

  11. Fold bottom half of paper up and tuck underneath the collar to hold in place

*If you're using this as a card, the blank side is where you'll write a note/draw a picture.




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