Anyone make their own T-shirts?

[slayer202]

Anyone make their own tshirts? I wanna get started but not sure the best way.

I know there are machines you can buy, but they are expensive right?

How well do iron-ons work? Any recomendations?

 

[kapow]

Text

 

[FleshLight]

Iron-ons don't fair through the first wash very well. Getting into the screen printing business is not worth it unless you have some highly original designs that will sell very well.

 

[slayer202]

Originally posted by: FleshLight
Iron-ons don't fair through the first wash very well. Getting into the screen printing business is not worth it unless you have some highly original designs that will sell very well.

Well I mainly want to make a few shirts for myself. Starting a business out of it isn't a priority. hmmm

 

[nakedfrog]

The cheapest way is Sharpie or spray-paint

 

[BoomerD]

Do you want to make the shirts from a bolt of cloth? or just decorate a few pre-made ones for personalization?

 

[wedi42]

custom printed t-shirts. no minimums.
http://www.customink.com/

 

[slayer202]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
Do you want to make the shirts from a bolt of cloth? or just decorate a few pre-made ones for personalization?

just decorate pre-made

 

[slayer202]

Originally posted by: johngute
custom printed t-shirts. no minimums.
http://www.customink.com/

very expensive, and 6 shirt minimum

 

[scootermaster]

spreadshirt

 

[FleshLight]

Well for individual shirts I would expect the minimum to be $12 for a single color screened design.

 

[Analog]

I used to screen print my own shirts. I did it for fraternity parties in college and for softball teams etc. I learned how to make silk screens in a photography class in high school. Its not that hard, especially now with computers and modern printers (to make the negatives) etc. At the height of my 'production' I bought t-shirts directly from the manufacturer for very cheap. I got up to 3 color max, but since I did it all by hand, registration was difficult. There you go.

 

[clamum]

I've been making shirts for a few years, every now and then, and I just use iron-on transfers from Wal-Mart (in the paper section) and a blank t-shirt (or whatever) from there.

They have iron-ons for dark shirts and ones for white (or another very light color) shirts. Reason being is any white areas on the light iron-ons becomes transparent when you iron it on.

I guess the only advice I have is to make sure to get the iron hot and press down hard on the transfer, and iron it for the recommended time on the instructions. Then turn the shirt inside out and put it in the wash with cold water.

The light transfers last longer than the dark ones with will start to crack after awhile. I still have light ones that are > 5 years old and look perfect.

 

[alien42]

i bet you could find a screen printing class at a local or college or art school

 

[Kelemvor]

Can make your own stuff easily at http://www.printfection.com

Can upload your own images and stuff. Can even open your own "store" with all your designs. Used to have coupons and stuff but I'm not sure. I got a shirt from them a while ago for my wife and it's still doing fine.

But if you actually want to physically make your own shirts, then you can do Iron-On easily enough but those wear out quickly. Or can do Silk Screening but need training and the machine to do that.

 

[gwrober]

We do this - part of our business -


The screen printing itself isn't that difficult, but if you're not doing it often, getting setup to print can be time consuming. You don't need a machine if you're using waterbased inks (air dry) instead of oil or chemical based (heat cure) inks.

Liquid emulsion can be used just as easy as the precut stuff.

I'm sure instructables has a few 'how to' articles on the subject - it's very similar to stenciling. You could, if you wanted to, make a stencil, and use that to print on a shirt until the stencil no longer holds up.

You can do lots of neat textures, appearances, etc with screen printing - glow in the dark ink, puff, raised, etc. Even glitter ink. Practice is really all you need. BUT, if you get materials from an art or paint shop, definitely look for practice squares. We buy our shirts in bulk, but it still sucks to mess one up and lose a couple of bucks!

You can even make your own screens easily. Instructables has a few articles on that too.


The big diff between pros and amatuers at this is the print quality, and volume. We turn out a few hundred shirts a week, not to mention the heat pressing, embroidery, and other materials. We do some jobs as low as 10 pcs., but I think we're bumping that up to 12.

Iron ons will work if you're in a pinch, but (personally) I don't like the quality. Sublimation is the way to go in that case, but a good screen printer can get very close to sublimation quality any day.


My .02....any other printers here? We also do ad specialties and a TON of vinyl.


Link to my site here for anyone interested....

 

[slayer202]

thanks for the info guys. might have some more questions soon

 

[Rill22]

I prefer puff paint on my t-shirts.