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How would you make this shirt?

1827 Views 7 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  allisonkbye, 
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I have a vinyl cutter, heat press and t-shirt vinyl. I am squared away with all that, but I would like to get into doing multi-colored designs. A friend wants me to make this logo on a black shirt for them, and I am trying to figure out which path I want to go down as far as buying a printer, ink and transfer paper is concerned. Mostly what we would be making is on black shirts.

I did much research and was leaning towards the wf1100, CIS pigmet ink kit and all that. I am just curious (probably a stupid question) - but would I make the entire background of my print black? Seems odd to be printing black ink over white transfer paper to keep it black. Would the black ink ever wash off and reveal the white transfer paper?

What is throwing me off is that I just read (after I thought it wasn't possible) that LASER printers can have white toner, therefore printing white ink? If so I have yet to do any research on what type of laser printers and ink I would need.

So I am just curious how you people would go about making this shirt and what is the best route for me if I plan on making a ton more like this in the future :) Thanks so much for all your advice!
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StevesApparel
Allison.

I read your post with great interest. Basically, here is what I think.

First, I dunno the die cutting part you mentioned.

So, as a first choice, I would use a DTG method and remove the black square outside the white circle. This is because the black square won't look good on a black shirt.

As a second choice I would use a high end screen printing machine to knock this out. With the right ink, you can get two years out of the wear and tear on the ink and offer a good Warranty on the shirt. This is much cheaper by the shirt and you can make a decent buck off the deal on each go around. Kinda looks to me like you'd have $9 - $10 per shirt in it (including margin) if you went this route. (we embroider EVERY shirt, so I factored that in).

I sincerely hope that helps you out !

Steve
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Plastisol heat transfers...... Plastisol Transfers - T-Shirt Forums
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CreativiTEES
If your vinyl cutter has an optical eye for the print and cut feature you can print the design on dark color inkjet transfer paper and have the cutter cut around the outer white circle to get rid of the box of the paper. I use the Epson workforce 1100 from cobra ink and the transfers last great
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THANK YOU guys soooo much for your responses thus far! I can't help but laugh at myself for thinking how easy this was originally going to be. I thought "I'll buy a printer, some ink and paper and be on my way" LOL yeah not so much. I mean, if I had the money to fork out for a DTG printer that would definitely be my top choice!

The plastisol transfers seem like a great option, however since (correct me if I'm wrong) I have to send my design somewhere to have someone else make it, it's not really a feasible option for just doing a shirt here and there....but definitely would be an option if say, I got 50 shirts to do!

My cutter does not have an optical eye. I am thinking for this particular shirt though I might just cut the outer logo, circle, and eye with the vinyl cutter and slap it on, then make a dark transfer of the rest of the design and slap that on.

I was really curious to see what you guys would do and thank you for your responses. Again like I said I think I'll still order the printer and for anything difficult, try to talk my customers out of using white unless it's something I can do with the cutter :)
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StevesApparel
allisonkbye said:
THANK YOU guys soooo much for your responses thus far! I can't help but laugh at myself for thinking how easy this was originally going to be. I thought "I'll buy a printer, some ink and paper and be on my way" LOL yeah not so much. I mean, if I had the money to fork out for a DTG printer that would definitely be my top choice!

The plastisol transfers seem like a great option, however since (correct me if I'm wrong) I have to send my design somewhere to have someone else make it, it's not really a feasible option for just doing a shirt here and there....but definitely would be an option if say, I got 50 shirts to do!

My cutter does not have an optical eye. I am thinking for this particular shirt though I might just cut the outer logo, circle, and eye with the vinyl cutter and slap it on, then make a dark transfer of the rest of the design and slap that on.

I was really curious to see what you guys would do and thank you for your responses. Again like I said I think I'll still order the printer and for anything difficult, try to talk my customers out of using white unless it's something I can do with the cutter :)
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My suggestion is to use a contract print guy on the forums, like one of the forum sponsors.
These guys have the $13,000 DTG machines and the $250,000 screen print machines and this is all these guys do.
I do think buying the machine you mentioned could be a good idea.

One more thing I thought of: You could try to put a 10" version of this logo on the back and a 4" version of this logo on the left chest. This would go great on a 6.1 / 6.3 oz. cotton shirt.

I wish you much success Allison.

Steve
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bomber315
IUP huh... does that still stand for I Usually Party? i would go with plastisol transfers all the way... buy as many as you can afford or think you may need and keep them... then you will have a high quality shirt on demand, 1 at a time... hello from clarion btw
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bomber315 said:
IUP huh... does that still stand for I Usually Party? i would go with plastisol transfers all the way... buy as many as you can afford or think you may need and keep them... then you will have a high quality shirt on demand, 1 at a time... hello from clarion btw
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what a small world! you are right up the road then. I have decided to go ahead with the plastisol. Still going to order the 1100 and Cobra ink system!!
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