Making T-Shirts

[kimo55]

:confused: Does anyone know how I can do homemade screen printed t-shirts to keep the cost of my shirts down?


most are 5 bux total from printers. many have min one doz.
One color silkscreened back or front only on Hanes beefy T.
how low ya wanna go?
you could get yer own screen print setup.
try ebay for materials...

[Miulang]

Why don't you use somebody like CafePress? You just provide them with the design, they print your t-shirt (can even do one at a time so no overhead for you), collect the money and send you a check. You only make about a buck a t-shirt, but they also can put your design on mugs, calendars, all kinds of stuff. They do kinda have a censorship policy that can get dicey sometimes, but I think unless you're going into the design business fulltime, it ain't worth the hassle or the cost of the overhead to do them yourself and make them turn out looking professional.

Miulang

[scrivener]

Does anyone know how I can do homemade screen printed t-shirts to keep the cost of my shirts down?

I do, but it's semi-labor-intensive. If you're looking for single-color, water-based screen-prints, it's really quite easy and low-priced. I prefer water-based inks to that plastic stuff that most shirts are made with because it's more comfortable and the print looks better for a longer period of time. Also, it's easier to work with and much cheaper. I'll send you some photos of my own hobby-level work if you'd like to see what minimal training and experience can do.

Is that why the Joe Moore shirts were pulled from the site? I wanted one.

[talkstinkDotCom]

Why don't you use somebody like CafePress? You just provide them with the design, they print your t-shirt (can even do one at a time so no overhead for you), collect the money and send you a check.
That's true, but I haven't heard any good reviews of their heat transfer shirts. I haven't gotten anything made by them so I don't know about the quality of their garments.
I do, but it's semi-labor-intensive. If you're looking for single-color, water-based screen-prints, it's really quite easy and low-priced... **snip**
Is that why the Joe Moore shirts were pulled from the site? I wanted one.
Yeah, the shirt got pulled because there was a price point I wanted to hit and still offer a quality shirt. Demand on an item like the Moore shirt wouldn't be too high so I wasn't about to short run it and use the remainders as promo items since, as we've been discussing on this thread (http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=4605), them weblogs don't pay the bills :D .

I'd really like see those shirts you've made and the process you use. PM me the info. That'd be cool. Semi-labor is my kind of labor, specially since I'm, ahem, between regular gigs.

[Miulang]

Cafepress' t-shirts are actually very good quality. They don't feel "plasticky" like regular heat transfer t-shirts do and they wear very well because they use high quality stock. Besides, the fun part of the t-shirts is in the design, I thought.

My kane has a couple of CafePress sites (go look at www.panzo.org). He does political t-shirts, too.

Miulang

[admin]

Cafepress is neat, but you're never going to get costs down to $3-$5 per shirt. Frankly, you're overpaying by a large margin, but the trade off is ease of use, the variety of products (print your own teddy bear! clock! or thong!) and automated billing and fulfillment. HawaiiThreads.com has its own Cafepress shop (http://www.cafepress.com/hawaiithreads) for various goodies, and I've used Cafepress just to print one or two shirts with pictures of the kids for grandparent gifts.

I'd grade the quality of Cafepress' on-demand T-shirt printing a B-minus. They've definitely gotten better - the first stuff I printed through them faded severely after only a couple of washes, but the 'Threads gear I made a few months ago still looks pretty darn good.

That said, I felt like I matched the quality and beat the price just by using iron-on transfers, my inkjet printer, and basic shirts from WalMart. I think I calculated the cost of three home-made shirts to under $20, which is great considering you'd pay $17 for one with Cafepress (after adding in shipping).

I suspect the real homemade stuff, and real screenprinting gear, will turn out shirts that are more durable by a long shot. You might not get 256 colors, but the print will probably survive for years and you'll save quite a bit of cash. A couple years back I made shirts by buying in bulk from American T-Shirt Company (on Dillingham I think) and a local screen printer (operating out of her garage in Pearl City). Those shirts look fantastic, and apart from having to deal with 50 shirts instead of 5, per-piece they were a steal.

[zztype]

Here are my CafePress shops. You can have a lot of fun with this thing, with very little effort. Blaine's CafePress Shops (http://www.cafeshops.com/zztype,webmastah,kickdog,kamschool,alohatown,where sfrankie,ahupuaa)

What's cool about CafePress is that you can come up with an idea, make the design, upload to the site and select items to print it on. Very, very fast. And you can do shirts or other items for otherwise totally silly ideas!