what are my options for making t-shirts?

[alivia]

I've been making a few t-shirts here and there because it's fun, not because I think I'll make money with them. So, on a small scale level, just for personal use, I'm wondering what my options are for getting my computer design -- I always work in photoshop as opposed to hand-drawing -- onto the t-shirts. I've tried inkjet transfers & felt like the quality was awful. After about 4 washings, the transferred part was peeling so badly I had to throw the shirt away.

Lately, I've been uploading them to cafepress, but it stinks because I can get t-shirts I like so much more cheaply from the thrift store than paying $26/pop from cafepress.

I've looked at a yudu personal screenprinting machine, but it looks very confusing. It looks like I'd pretty much have to learn how to screenprint to use the machine. Well, if I'm learning how to screenprint already then why not just buy the cheaper screenprinting equipment and forget the $300 machine?

And I'd love to learn how to screenprint, but there are no classes I can find in my very rural area at all. Not even an hour away in a metro area.

Am I overlooking something? I feel very frustrated. I'm sitting on a t-shirt I want to make right away but I can't stomach $26 + shipping for cafepress this time. TIA for any help or experience!

[notjustmamie]

Here is a tutorial for DIY silk screening: http://community.livejournal.com/craftgrrl/3674467.html. I've never tried it myself, but her project seemed to come out pretty well.

[beanma]

Screenprinting isn't hard. You don't need to take a class. If you've been doing stuff in Photoshop you just need to get a screenprinting kit with photo emulsion. If you're doing one-color or two colors w/o tight registration it's super easy. If you're doing 4 colors (like a color photo) you'll need to do something to insure tight registration. Usually this is done in a shop with a 4 color screen-printing press. You might be able to rig something up if you're talented in that dept, but it's gotta be perfect so it's a little tricky. Here are a couple of links for making your own: http://www.printingplans.com/screenprintingpress.html , http://www.screenprintingguy.com/fourcolorpress.html . You can do a lot of cool things w/o a press, though and just one or two single screens.

Personally I wouldn't do it the way the person in the link above did it. You'll get much better results with a square frame and a squeegee. The Modge Podge might be all right, but you could just use the actual screen printing filler.

Dharma has some good info here and screen printing kits you can buy.

If you're not doing actual photos you'll get a crisper line using a vector illustration program like Illustrator or InDesign. Photoshop can give a little bit of a fuzzy edge to type, etc.

hth

[alivia]

wow! printing my own t-shirts has been an interest of mine for over a year and i got more valuable info in these two replies than i have on my own in the last year. apparently i just didn't know where to look! i actually think i can do this myself now, even without a class. although the girl in the first link didn't use the same equipment i'd probably use, i *loved* the way she broke down the process so it all came together for me & made sense.

i'm wondering though...she mentioned if you're only doing one copy that a stencil would be easier. maybe a stencil process would suit my needs just fine? maybe that's just the sort of obvious simple answer i've been overlooking?

thanks so much for the info!!!

[beanma]

You could do a stencil or you could just paint free-hand. Both stencils and screen-printing are really designed to allow you to produce multiple copies of a design. Screen-printing is going to give you finer lines and more control than a stencil I would think.

You might like to make multiple copies of your designs. Maybe you have some friends who would like your shirts, too, or you might like to think about holiday gifts or even holiday cards.

I haven't really done much stenciling, but many years ago I used to do 2 color screenprinting at home. I'd print maybe 20 shirts for a band or something. It's fun. I later worked in a screen printing shop where we had a 6 color press, IIRC. When I was doing stuff at home I preferred the photo emulsion kit. The screen-filler method was too time consuming for me. I'd print the design on thin paper or actetate and then expose the screen with just a desk lamp over it. Sometimes I would draw directly on acetate/plastic with a grease pencil. The worst part of it was to remove the emulsion from the screen you had to use bleach, but you could then reuse your screen for another design. It's not rocket science! If you get a kit it will have directions.

have fun!