Make my own t-shirt

[colorgarden.livejournal.com]

Is there anywhere in the area that I can silk screen my own t-shirt (just one, for myself)? If not, is there anywhere that sells iron-on paper? Thanks in advance, all!

Comments

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

It's not local, but I've had luck ordering a single (well two) t-shirts of my own design from spreadshirt.com. It's $15 or $18 or something like that, but much much less than you'd pay for a custom screen, and it's held up pretty well in the wash as well. Check it out. (http://davis.spreadshirt.com)

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I was going to recomment QRST printing (they're in the same building as the Taza Chocolate folks and I toured there during the last Taza open house) but the website http://www.qrsts.com/ seems to be down. They demonstrated this T-shirt dot matrix printing thing as well as their silk screen operations.

[haptotrope.livejournal.com]

silkscreen not so much... put heat transfer words on things at the Garment District (downstairs, last I checked)

Elsewise you can likely find iron-on paper at Michael's Crafts (wellington-ish)/ Pearl Art And Craft (central) and the Artist materials place across Mass Ave from Pearl (central)

see also cafepress.com

[sungold123.livejournal.com]

They sell iron-on paper at A.C. Moore in Assembly Square.

[magpie-leah.livejournal.com]

Sadly it would be hard to get a silkscreener to do only one shirt because it's a significant amount of effort to burn the screens. You need one screen per color and they usually charge like $20 or per screen.

I also recommend Spreadshirt or CafePress if you can wait for them to be shipped. If your design is a vector, Spreadshirt can do this cool technique where they use a plot-cutter to cut out your design out of this plastic material which gets fused to the shirt. It looks amazingly crisp.

Any office supply store like Staples should carry iron-on transfer paper. If you buy the kind that's made for ironing on to dark fabric, it will look much more vibrant. (even you're ironing onto a white shirt)

Pearl Art in Central Sq carries this kind of thing too but I find they are often out of stock for certain things so you should call first. (And cross your fingers that the person who answers isn't too busy or lazy to answer your question correctly. Grr... Pearl...)

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

I second the recommendation of CafePress.com . I've been using them for years, and they've always given me good results and good service. The one time I had any problem with the products, they simply replaced it for me (with a perfect replacement) without hassle and didn't require me to ship back the defective item.

Pearl Art also carries inexpensive-ish (~$50) silk screening kits, if you want to learn how to do it yourself, but it's still going to be cheaper to just have a service make the shirt for you.

[magpie-leah.livejournal.com]

I just realized that you said you were looking for a place to silk screen a shirt yourself. Sorry I missed that.

I really wish there was an art space in the area with tools so forth you could use (on a hourly fee basis or monthly membership). Somebody should start this! :)

[colorgarden.livejournal.com]

Totally what I was thinking (and hoping for, when I posted this)!

[magpie-leah.livejournal.com]

I forget what this place is called but there's a place in San Francisco where you pay a monthly fee and get to use all these tools.. everything from woodworking tools to plot cutters to embroidery/sewing machines...

That would be so awesome to have around!

As someone mentioned below Willoughby & Baltic has done such really awesome-sounding DIY workshops. Would be so cool to expand this idea into a place you could rent workshop time.

[arrowintwolakes.livejournal.com]

Maybe that can be one of the functions for the Armory once it opens up?

[rmd.livejournal.com]

besides iron on paper, you can also just get fabric paint (to either be brushed on or sprayed on, depending on the paint) and cut a stencil. i've done this with good success.

any of the local craft stores (michaels, ac moore, pearl, and that place across the street from pearl in central square) should have fabric paint. they may also have stencil bits.

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

Didn't Willoughby & Baltic have a silkscreening workshop in the last few months?

As for iron-on paper, any big stationary store like the Stapleses in Harvard Square or Alewife should have it. Closer to home, you might try Bob Slade or Cartridge World in Porter.

willoughby and baltic's screen printing workshop

[c011een.livejournal.com]

yes, willoughby and baltic had a screen printing workshop over the summer. I attended and it was great and I have done a couple screen printing projects since then. The woman who taught the class, Tracy Rolling, has a great tutorial on instructables.com

http://www.instructables.com/id/Screen-Printing%3a-Cheap%2c-Dirty%2c-and-At-Home/

[colorgarden.livejournal.com]

These comments are all REALLY helpful. Thank you all a ton!

You can buy it at Staples...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I think that's where I bought my iron-on sheets...

[kidsmokes.livejournal.com]

say no to iron-on it will crack like no other. I used to stencil shirts and the best way is definitely with contact paper + xacto knife + fabric paint.

Do you mean, after you wash it?

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I'll have to try your method, for comparison :)

[ron_newman]

I added the "business services" tag. This post and this really old post may be useful.

[ser-pez.livejournal.com]

i agree with the 'no iron-ons' comment. stenciling is a really easy and cheap way to get a fairly simple design onto a shirt, if your design doesn't have more than a couple of colors. with more than a couple of colors, screening (or really, really patient stenciling) is the way to go. it really isn't difficult to screen print something yourself, it's just a matter of collecting the materials; it's something you can do pretty easily at home. if you search 'screen print tutorial' on craftster.org, you should find some tutorials that are posted there about how to do some makeshift printing at home. good luck!

Vista Print

[coeceo.livejournal.com]

My friend works at VistaPrint and they are set-up for low quantitiy t-shirts, looked like silk screen quality to me. It is all online from my understanding and I am unsure of the fit of Tees available.