creating your own t-shirts

[ferny]

I know a couple of people have had a go here but I think it was just letters. I want to create logos and other crap to put on some t-shirts for my own use. Has anyone got any experience? Obviously I'm from England so US sites won't help much. I had a quick search and found a couple of places which charge around £12 (not including postage) per shirt. I'm not sure if they were sites for companies though, we'd I'd have to buy a box of 50 shirts. Erm, obviously that's not what I want.
There are also those transfer sheets (or whatever they are) that you can put through your printer. I haven't seen one of those for sale for ages, granted I haven't exactly looked for them though... Has anyone used one of those kits?

 

[Nikon Fan]

I tried the print and iron ones before but they sucked. I would say look for a local company that prints tshirts for sports teams or whatever, and get their price. The ones around here locallly will let you email them your own graphics and design and then they create the shirts. You could probably order a lot less that way, but not sure what it will cost you there...

 

[mentos_007]

I tried transfer sheets and it turned up really nice... but do not put your t-shirt to waschmachine.....

 

[ferny]

Thought I'd update with some links I found.,
http://www.eshirt.it/
http://t-shirtme.buy-tees.com/index.asp
http://www.spreadshirt.de/
http://www.primitivestate.com/

 

[anua]

there are few ways of doing that, ferny - all depends how much time(patience) or money you have and how many copies you need.

1. Screen printing or silk- screen printing - the most 'proffesional' method for more copies - i have no idea if thats the correct word for it, here its called 'sitodruk' (santino? ola? can you help me with this one?- ) - what you have to do is design a logo and give it to the printing company - that's all -> 'sitodruk' is one of the best ways of printing on fabric, and its very durable , its also not VERY expensive - but - they prolly wont print you one or two copies i think, but you can always try and ask-...ah, and this method is much cheaper when you use only one or two colours, and when the design is more like 'sign' - images, pics , paintings, very colourful things with mixed colours - all those things dont work well with 'sitodruk'.

2.Thermal - Xero method.
you can do it at all biggest 'xero companies' (or labs)-> the method is not that durable as 'sitodruk', but its much cheaper (here its about 30 zl <its few dollars i think> for a printing AND a shirt), and you can print one copy or two if you want to.
- you can give the digital file to the company, you can give them a print, design, image at the sheet of paper, whatever you want - and it lasts few minutes to put it at the shirt. Usually they have size limit which is A4.
Ive tried it once - it looked very nice, but after few times in washing machine - it has dissapeared.

3. Acrylic paints. They are indestructible.
This is the way i use the most.
There are special acrylic paints, but called 'textile'(or something like that) - not the ones u use for painting - special ones for the fabrics (textiles? )
After you finished your painting you have to harden it with an iron for 5 minutes - then the painting is indestructible. I have made some t-shirts with this method few years ago and the colours are still vibrant and nothing wrong has happened to it.
The paints are pretty cheap, and you buy every colour separately, so its even cheaper, cause sometimes you dont need the whole colours.
If you are interested with this method and tricks how to make it work better - just pm me - i have a bit of experience with it, ha ha

hope it helps. and hope it works in english, he he

good luck with it, ferny!

anj

 

[ferny]

Ahh, but you're assuming I can hold a brush there! :mrgreen:

Thanks for that info. On one of those sites they say they use some type of lasar printer to put the logo onto the shirt. They can't do white so any part of your design which is white comes out transparent.

I just want a couple of shirts which are different. So I'd make one design or logo and just on one shirt.

You're English is fine by the way. Better than mine is most of the time!