How to Put Your Dog’s Face on Pajamas: 4 Ways to Make Your Own Pajamas

How to put your dog’s face on pajamas: four ways compared

Most advice on how to customize pajamas stops at iron-on letters, and a dog’s face is harder: it has to stay recognizable, and fur edges are tricky to cut out cleanly. The route that suits you depends on three things: how much of the garment the face should cover, how photographic it should look, and whether you own a printer and an iron.

The first two are true home projects and suit a single face on a pocket or a leg. The last two can cover the whole garment, and they differ in who does the design work: you, or the people printing it.

The made-for-you route: upload one photo

If you would rather not make your own, pet face pajamas made to order leave the artwork to someone else. At MyDogPics your part is the choices: the photo, the garment, the design and the size.

• 1. Choose the garment and design in the pet face pajamas collection: pajama pants, long- and short-sleeve satin sets, a stretch-knit set, a satin shirt dress and kids styles. Some designs let you choose a background, and some take more than one dog, as each product page states.
• 2. Upload the original photo on the product page: the file from your phone or camera, not a screenshot or a copy saved from a chat app.
• 3. We check the photo and prepare the artwork. MyDogPics cuts your dog’s face out of the background and places it in the design; if the photo is too small, dark or blurry to print well, we email you for another before printing.
• 4. Printed to order. The pajamas are printed after you check out, by dye sublimation, which puts the color into the polyester fibers instead of leaving a layer on top that can crack or peel.
• 5. Shipped with tracking. Every order goes to a US address with USPS tracking; current production and delivery times are on the shipping page.

There is no proof or approval step, because the photo check replaces it. Changes and cancellations are possible by email within 12 hours of ordering, before the order goes to print.

The same steps answer how to personalize Christmas pajamas: choose a design from the Christmas dog gifts collection and upload your photo. To make your own Christmas pajamas for a whole family, upload the same photo of the dog with every order and pick each person’s size.

The DIY routes, step by step

Making personalized pajamas at home is a fun project if you accept the limits of each method. Here is what each one involves, with the makers’ own instructions where they matter.

Iron-on transfer paper

Transfer paper is the classic way to make your own PJs: you print the photo on a coated sheet and iron the image onto the fabric. Buy the sheet made for your fabric color, because light and dark transfers are applied in opposite ways.

• 1. Prepare the image. Cut the dog’s face out of the background first (see the upload route below) and size it to the spot you want to cover.
• 2. Print it the right way round. Avery’s light-fabric instructions have you print a mirror image and iron the sheet face down. Its dark-fabric transfers are not mirrored: you peel off the backing, lay the transfer face up and cover it with the tissue that comes in the pack.
• 3. Set up the iron. Both sets of instructions call for an iron with no water in it, steam off, a high cotton setting and heavy pressure, on a heat-resistant surface such as a wooden table rather than an ironing board.
• 4. Let it cool, then peel. Avery says to let light transfers cool for 2 minutes and dark ones for 2 to 3 minutes before peeling.

The result is a patch that sits on top of the fabric, one sheet at a time. To make your own PJ pants this way, put one face on the front of each thigh, where the fabric lies flat, rather than attempting an all-over repeat. Avery guarantees its transfers look good after 20 washes when they are applied and washed as instructed.

Fabric paint and a stencil

Paint turns your dog into a graphic silhouette rather than a photo, which suits dogs with a strong outline or bold markings. Jacquard’s Textile Color is sold for natural and synthetic fabrics and leaves them soft, but it is semi-transparent: for dark fabric the maker points you to its opaque Neopaque paints or to mixing in an opaque white.

• 1. Wash the pajamas first to remove factory sizing, and slide cardboard between the layers so paint cannot soak through to the back.
• 2. Trace the head from a printed photo, then cut a stencil with separate openings for the ears, the nose and any patches.
• 3. Dab rather than brush at the stencil edges so paint does not creep underneath, and build the color in thin layers.
• 4. Let it dry, then heat set it. Jacquard says Textile Color should be heat set with an iron, heat press, heat gun or dryer for permanence.

Expect a stylized dog rather than a likeness. If you want the real face, with fur texture and eye color, paint is the wrong tool.

Design-your-own upload on a print-on-demand site

Print-on-demand sites with a design tool let you make custom pajamas without an iron: you upload an image, place it on a template, and the site prints what you placed. You are the art department, though, so the cut-out, the pattern and the resolution are all on you.

• 1. Cut the face out. On an iPhone, the Photos app can lift the subject from the background: touch and hold the dog until an outline appears, then copy or share it. Check the ears and fur edges, which automatic cut-outs can clip.
• 2. Build the pattern. One large face lands on seams and folds, so all-over designs usually repeat a smaller face in staggered rows with space between them.
• 3. Check the resolution. At the usual 300 pixels per inch, a face printed 4 inches wide needs 1200 pixels across, which a face cropped out of a distant shot rarely has.
• 4. Read the product details. Look for the fiber content, the print method and whether the print covers the whole garment or one panel, and check what happens if your file prints badly.

This route lets you make your own custom pajamas down to the last detail. It also means the site may print your file exactly as it is, so a blurry face or a clipped ear ends up on the fabric.

Photo prep for every route

Whichever route you take, the photo sets the ceiling. A close-up with sharp eyes, the head filling most of the frame and both ears and the chin in view works for all four.

• Transfers and uploads: pixels matter most, because the face prints at a fixed size, and cropping a distant dog throws most of them away.
• Fabric paint: contrast beats sharpness, since a head whose outline stands out from the background is easiest to trace.
• Made to order: send the original file and let the photo check catch problems; MyDogPics emails you if a photo is too small, dark or blurry.
• Every route: soft daylight, no bright window behind the dog, and no filters or portrait-mode blur, which can smear fur edges.

Our photo guide puts these faults side by side. Check the pictures already on your phone against it, and ask first if someone else took the best one.

How do you measure for dog face pajamas?

Measure the person who will wear them. Take chest, waist, hip and inside-leg measurements over light clothing, or lay a well-fitting pair of pajamas flat and measure that, then compare the numbers with the size chart on the product page.

Letter sizes are not standard between brands, so a medium elsewhere is not automatically a medium here. The fabric matters too: the satin styles are 100% polyester satin, while the knit adds 5% spandex to 95% polyester for 4-way stretch and a little more give.

• Adult pajama pants: XS–5XL, a unisex relaxed fit with an elastic waistband, elastic ankle cuffs and two side pockets.
• Satin and stretch-knit pajama sets: S–5XL.
• Men’s satin sets and short-sleeve sets: men’s S–4XL.
• Women’s satin shirt dress: women’s S–3XL.
• Kids: pajama pants in 2Y–10Y; satin sets in 4Y–10Y and Youth S–M.

If you only want to make custom pajama pants, the adult pants are the easiest to size as a gift, thanks to the elastic waist and relaxed cut. Kids’ styles are grouped under custom kid pajamas, where the elastic cuffs on the pants let you adjust the leg length as a child grows.

Check the chart before you pay: a wrong size chosen at checkout is not covered by returns, because each pair is printed for one customer. What is covered, within 30 days of delivery, is a print defect, damage during shipping, a wrong item or an order that does not match what you ordered.

Mistakes to avoid when you make your own pajamas

• Printing from a screenshot or a chat-app copy. Both are smaller than the original file, and the loss shows as soon as the face is enlarged.
• Forgetting to mirror a light-fabric transfer. The image comes out reversed, which is obvious the moment a name or a collar tag is in the picture.
• Using an ironing board or steam. Avery’s instructions rule out both for its transfers and call for a firm, heat-resistant surface and heavy pressure instead.
• Expecting an all-over print on cotton. Sublimation needs polyester, so a cotton pair from a craft store can take a transfer or paint, not a sublimated repeat.
• Putting one big face across a seam. The side and inside-leg seams of pajama pants split a large face; smaller repeated faces avoid the problem.
• Ordering the usual letter size. Compare the measurements with the chart instead, since a wrong size chosen at checkout is not covered.
• Leaving it too late. Paint needs drying and heat-setting time, and made-to-order pajamas are printed after you check out, so look at the shipping page well before a date.

Almost every one of these starts with the photo or the method rather than the pajamas. Get the photo right first, pick the route that matches the look you want, and the rest is routine.

Who each route suits: gift ideas for every dog person

Pajamas with a dog’s face make a gift for a dog lover whichever route you take, and the route decides how much work the giver does. Each card names the person, the problem they face and the route that answers it.

Questions about making your own pajamas

Sources

• Avery — Light T-shirt Fabric Transfers: Ironing and Heat Press Instructions
• Avery — Dark Fabric Transfers: Ironing and Heat Press Instructions
• Jacquard Products — Textile Color
• Apple Support — Lift a subject from the photo or video background on iPhone

Related guides: Choosing custom pet pajamas · Cotton or polyester pajamas · Christmas pajama photos with the dog · Dog photo product guides

Last reviewed: September 25, 2026