T-Shirts, advice for making your own designs please

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
anyone done this with success
and can advise on kit to buy (UK)?

basically I want to scan graphics from old records
treat them on a computer and then on a T-shirt (Hanes or some other proper Tees).
I want the end result to last and look good.

I used to have a great red one ordered from the NME with the dragon
from "Even Serpents Shine" (Only Ones) and might have a stab at recreating that.
One of the great lost T-shirts ...
 

Canada J Soup

Monkey Man
Rather than investing in equipment, how about submitting a design to a site like threadless.com or setting up a Cafepress store? It might be useful to have an idea of whether it will appeal to enough people to sell before spending a significant amount of money.

The cheapest alternative would be to get a good colour printer and some blank sheets of iron on transfers to print on. It's slow and tricky to get right, but I understand that machines for printing directly onto shirts cost upwards of $3,000, closer to $10,000 if you want detailed images.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Iron on transfers look rubbish, at least when I do them. Plus I think they wash out over time. This may not be an issue for you though because all you need is transfer paper which is a few quid, a scanner, computer, printer and an iron. And a t-shirt.

Are you after stuff for personal use only or to sell?

If the former then probably cafe press etc tho I haven't used them.

If the latter then find someone who does silk screen printing and get some quotes.

Find out if they can take designs on CD (the one I used to use needed good quality black and white printout).

Best bet is to do one or two colour prints only. More colour = more expensive.

Costs are:

  • T-shirts. Get good ones like Screen Stars or Haines.

    Set up - i.e. producing the screen for each colour. (this is a one off cost - you won't have to pay again if you do a second run)

    Printing - per ink, per shirt. I usually got them to "double print" each colour. This means you get thicker ink on the t-shirt which looks better and is much longer lasting.
 

sufi

lala
i wuz checking these people recently:
http://londonprintworks.com/
round the corner from me...
£50 membership + £50 per day sound a bit steep i must say, but they do have all the kit.

lemme know if you're interested in visiting?

soofka
 

dominic

Beast of Burden
my party organization is in the process of getting t-shirts made

i'll report back on all the steps we made, and the final result
 

scottishsandra

New member
t-shirt

did you ever get your t-shirt made? If you have let me know how you got on. I had yhe serpents t-shirt and would try to make one too if I knew how.
 

luka

Well-known member
t-shirt

did you ever get your t-shirt made? If you have let me know how you got on. I had yhe serpents t-shirt and would try to make one too if I knew how.
this is the last we ever heard from scottish sandra. i hope shes ok.
 
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