Hey all. I recently became really interested in designing t-shirts so I'm in the process of learning more about how its done and getting familiar with Illustrator. However, I do have a quick question about Buying T-shirts online. Last week, I created a design with 3 colors for screenprinting, and it costed me a little over $100 for one shirt. Although I'm very happy with the outcome, I feel like its too much, but the gift was really important to me so I went with it.. So my question is, is there any sites that will take one t-shirt orders? I want to be able to design my own graphics and have a company print it, but I only want one t-shirt.
I use Direct to garment not screened. Unlimited colors. I have bleached mine in hot water I don't know how many times and they still look great. No peeling cracking or fading. I have the Brother printer. I just learned today that the Chicago White Sox just purchased the brothers to print on site for custom tees at the games.
Maybe you can answer a quick question for me. At first, when you mentioned Direct to Garment I had no idea what you were talking about.. but after reading several posts in that forum, I have a better idea of what that meant. I actually had no idea how the feel of screenprinting was until I felt it on the t-shirt. It wasn't what I had imagined or wanted.
Direct to garment printing is... picture a big ink-jet printer. It takes in a blank tee and prints whatever picture you want on it in a few minutes. There are many on-line companies that you can upload an image to and they will print it for you for around 20 bucks. It's not as good as screen printing but it looks pretty good. It will fade over time but won't peel off. The ones I have are holding up nicely. Below are some links for you.
Is this how companies like Aero and AE print their graphic tees?
No. Large professional companies use screenprinting almost exclusively. There are however other techniques (reduced plastisol inks, waterbased inks, discharge, etc.) beyond just whacking plastisol on a shirt that most of them use to get those results.
Screenprinting is still the best quality hands down, but it's not practical for one-offs (fixed setup charges mean it's only cost effective in quantity - where one shirt costs $100, five would cost $120). For one shirt at a reasonable price you'll want to go with DTG.
Thanks for all your input! I guess that $100 went to waste because the shirt I received was too large. It was really time-sensitive for this week too.. I guess I'll have to reorder another shirt, but instead this time I'll go with DTG.
Direct to garment printing is... picture a big ink-jet printer. It takes in a blank tee and prints whatever picture you want on it in a few minutes. There are many on-line companies that you can upload an image to and they will print it for you for around 20 bucks. It's not as good as screen printing but it looks pretty good. It will fade over time but won't peel off. The ones I have are holding up nicely. Below are some links for you.
I am not sure why everyone says that the Direct to Garment is not as good as screen prinitng. Most f my customers are preferring the dtg. Like I said I bleach mine in hot water and they have not faded. I have washed them at least 45 times, my husbands more because I made some for his company and he wears them to work everyday, and they get dirty and I bleach them as well. I do not take any special care in washing the shirts at all.
They hold up very well, the one shirt is a year old and has been washed I cannot tell you how many times and it still looks great
Ordering One Custom T-shirt 
Everything tastes better on a stick 
