T-Shirts

[G. Wood]

There's nothing like a good old screened shirt, right? What I'm wondering is what the shirts from all these online apparel sellers are like. My daughter got a shirt made for me a while ago, the image is like a blob of plastic stuck to the shirt, and not only that, it began to crack after a few washes.

 

Years ago, I had a shirt made at a mall kiosk, it was a heat transfer method, but it was nice and soft, not at all plastic-y, and it lasted for a decade (more, really). But now, all the custom shirts I see are this awful stuff. Any experience, insights? Thanks.

[ixnayray]

I make t-shirts for a living. There are a few different processes I use... it all depends on what kind of image is going on the shirt and what colour the shirt is. I use a heat-press/vinyl material and I also make laser prints. A printed shirt SHOULD last a long while. It's not always the fault of the manufacturer if the transfer peels off a shirt though... you may have washed it at too hot a temperature.

I was in the US a while back and saw a mall kiosk t-shirt place - it looked like they laminated a sheet of A4 paper and burnt it onto the shirt - ZOIKS!

Ultimately you get what you pay for - but if you want to email me some images i'd be happy to see if I can help.

[kopper]

The shirts from our Spreadshirt shop are great. The "iPod and Crossbones" print is a thick, fuzzy material... it feels like felt, with a plush, velvety texture. They call it flock printing. I've had one of those shirts for several years now and it has not cracked or peeled at all (I wash all my T-shirts in cold water so they last longer). The other shirts (the ones with the podcast poster images, GaragePunk.com or the GRGPNK fuzzbox logo) use digital direct printing, which means the ink is printed into the fabric, very similar to a screen print. None of our shirts are fleck printed (which are a slick shiny material on the outside of the fabric). I have not heard one person complain about the quality of the shirts from our store here, so I'd say that's a good sign.

[G. Wood]

Hey guys, thanks to both of you for your help. I don't have a shirt I want to make right now, just trying to get some knowledge. The digital direct printing sounds good. Yeah, 'ray, that laminated sheet look is what I want to avoid!

[The Von Ghouls]

The Von Ghouls said:

We make our own and it's not so hard. You can do it with your daughter cheap.

You get fabric paint but really any paint works - I've even used spray paint.

Print out any design on the computer on paper. Then stick it to a piece of card stock like a cereal box and cut out the letters with a box cutter or x-acto blade. The O's and B's and R's and letters like that have to be stencil-style letters or the middles will fall out.

Mix the paint with water so it won't clog and put it in a sprayer, like an old windex bottle. Stretch the shirt over a piece of cardboard and spray through the stencil onto the shirt. You can make many shirts, just dry off the stencil first. If it looks half-assed, you now have official garage punk quality! If you iron or tumble-dry the paint to heat-set it before you wash it, it lasts and lasts. This also lets you recycle any old shirt that has space on it.

[G. Wood]

Thanks, Ghouls, I've done pretty much the same thing, but I've found that spay doesnt adhere to T's very well, it sort of rests on the surface of fuzz fibers and doesn't get onto the actual surface unless you push it in with a brush or something. Well, maybe all T's aren't the same.

I like using a bleach solution on black T's, with a stencil. Here are a few I made a while ago--

[kopper]

I just wanted to add to this discussion that we have a brand-new shirt available in the GaragePunk.com Spreadshirt store that features a design by Shawn Dickinson (the guy responsible for the great cover of the 3rd volume of the Hideout Comp Series). It's now available in our Spreadshirt shop for $16.99 + shipping. CLICK HERE!

[The Von Ghouls]

*Update - they now sell fabric paint in little "pump" bottles at arts n'crafts stores - if you want to do home stenciling, the job just got easier, get your x-acto, cut your design out of thin, stiff cardboard like a cereal box, stretch out the shirt and spray. This only makes a few because the stencil starts to curl but some people like that "crude" look.

If you want to make a lot, get a sheet of thin plastic like this: http://www.grafixplastics.com/polyethylene.asp 

 

By the way, just last night I saw there was another advance in t-shirt technology on the Rachel Maddow show. An organization in Germany provided t-shirts free at a NeoNazi music festival that had a rockin' racist design  but when the shirts are washed, it turns into a different message! More here:  http://www.care2.com/causes/neo-nazis-in-germany-get-tricked-by-tro...

 

 

[Eppoh66]

I get my shirts at spreadshirt.com and they are great. Very good quallity, you can design your own stuff and the prints really last long (flexprint they call it). I got shirts I've already washed at least 50 times and they still look great. You can start your own shop for free (mine is basstam whitch I created for a friends-group). I'm only not sure if they send to the whole world.

[kopper]

Yes, I've been really happy with the quality of the shirts from Spreadshirt. They're MUCH nicer than CafePress, for example. The Flex and Flock print shirts are only available on images that are vector art (Illustrator) files, though. If you have a hi-res pixel image (like Shawn's drawing above), then it's printed as "Digital Direct," which also looks great but isn't textured (you can't *feel* the print on the shirt). And they ship pretty much all over the world now, click here for countries/rates.

Eppoh66 said:

I get my shirts at spreadshirt.com and they are great. Very good quallity, you can design your own stuff and the prints really last long (flexprint they call it). I got shirts I've already washed at least 50 times and they still look great. You can start your own shop for free (mine is basstam whitch I created for a friends-group). I'm only not sure if they send to the whole world.