Kool Gear Clothing

How do you go about putting your own designs on t-shirts?

Lately I've been interested in putting my own printed out designs and letterings on plain t-shirts, and I'd like to know what you need to do it.

Public Comments

1. buy a silk screening machine and equipment
2. Of course for a single t-shirt you can do the inkjet iron-ons, but for creating several, you need to look into silk screening. Silk screening is a method of "painting" the shirts in layers, each layer is a different color. If you have no experience in this you you should look-up silk screening services in your area. (This is not a do it yourself process if you are not familiar with it.) As well you can buy your tee's in bulk, "Fruit of the Loom, and Hanes" are high quality heavy shirts. In high quantity, having a company do this for you is not all that expensive. Your local service can also guide you (if you are nice to them) in how to adjust your graphic for best results. Keep in mind ink on fabric will bleed, so graphics may need minor adjusting.
3. well in today's day in age its easier then ever there is a web site . all you have to do is up load your image and they will do the rest.. that's if you are interested in selling them. but if not they have nice iron on sheets that work just as well as far as silk screening that's a hole different ball of wax you. black and whites are easy. but anything in color you have to do a color separation and screen the colors by them selves in layers. the web site for uploading your image is http://www.cafepress.com/ as for screening the shirt http://community.livejournal.com/craftgrrl/3674467.html hope this helps
4. I have many T-shirts with my colored drawings on them. Several print shops can do this. I do not know where you live, but I have used two such shops in San Francisco. I have even seen some in small towns. This is the easiest way to do it. Just make a painting or drawing that will fit on your T-shirt and a print shop can make a copy that can be transferred to the shirt. I did many for myself (62" chest) and some for my niece when she was age 4 to 6.
5. i'm an airbrush artist and do this for people all the time.also you can silkscreen the ideas.ialso do this but not on a large scale.check out your local craft and hobbie store for starter kits for airbrushing,and silkscreen kits. coastairbrush.com or dick blick art catalogs
6. Try Cafepress: http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/storeref.aspx?refby=cirese You can upload your images, create and sell a variety of customizable products (tshirts, posters, cards, gadgets...) with zero upfront costs and zero inventory investment.
7. here is the cheapest and easiest way to make a cool custom t-shirt with a cool design on it. get some freezer paper (it's like wax paper except only one side is waxy) draw a design on the non-waxy side of the paper or cut the paper to the right size and print on it with your regular inkjet printer using an x-acto knife, cut out the design, thus making a stencil for your shirt. take that stencil and iron it onto the shirt. the waxy side will temporarily adhere to the fabric preventing paint from bleeding outside of the stencil. use fabric paint and paintbrushes to apply the paint to the stencil. once it's dry, just peel off the freezer paper stencil!