[Ari]

Ok, so I want to make some t-shirts for my website. in the t-shirts are going to be a vector cartoon of me on the front and on the back it will Say [my website] another vector image.

Anyway, I came here to see about the best way to get these made, and I'm clueless, do I want Screen printing, embroidery, heat press, dye sublimation? Do I want to make the the t-shirts myself or do I want a company to make them.


I will probably want about 10-12 shirts for now, maybe more later, and will be doing more eventually with my other sites.


I want them to be in multiple colors, I want them to be high quality of course, and I want them to be fairly priced.


So whats the best way for me to go about this?

 

[Rodney]

Anyway, I came here to see about the best way to get these made, and I'm clueless, do I want Screen printing, embroidery, heat press, dye sublimation? Do I want to make the the t-shirts myself or do I want a company to make them.

Most likely, with a full color job of just 10 t-shirts, you probably won't be able to get screen printing directly on the garment.

Are you planning on selling these t-shirts, or are they just to wear around and give to friends?

If you plan on getting in the business of selling t-shirts, you could do it yourself with a quality heat press and some custom printed plastisol transfers.

If they are just going on white or light colored t-shirts, you could print out the design on transfer paper (using an inkjet printer with pigment ink) and press them to the t-shirts with a heat press.

Embroidery is with the design is put on the shirt with threads (stitched to the shirt to make the design), so you probably wouldn't want that for the type of shirts you're doing.

If you aren't interested investing in the equipment to do it yourself, you could outsource the printing to a company that does printing. You could find such a company by posting a classifieds ad at http://boards.screenprinters.net, your local yellow pages, or once you get 15 posts here, you can post a service request in our T-Shirt Classifieds (since we don't allow service requests or ads in the forum threads).

Check out this thread for some good links to threads that cover some of the different topics:
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/showthread.php?t=5149

 

[Rodney]

You might even want to check out the printing services of www.zazzle.com , www.cafepress.com and www.spreadshirt.com . With such a short run, it might be a good solution (and a way to offer more t-shirts for sale).

 

[Ari]

Thanks for your response, I plan to at first give these away, and eventually sell them, however I want to the quality of the shirt to be as if I was going to sell them, I plan on getting in the business, but I do not want to invest in expensive equipment just yet, I know someone who bought the iron on transfers and did it himself, is this profesional looking and longlasting? However I want them on black blue and red t-shirts.

Ok so then screenprinting and Embroidery is out. Also I would go with those services however, they seem pricey?

So once I get to 15 posts I can ask people here to make me these t-shirts?
I am still confused on how I should go about getting these shirts made profesionally and cheap.

thanks for your help

 

[Rodney]

Ok so then screenprinting and Embroidery is out.

If you ended up deciding to sell t-shirts and you wanted a larger quantity, screen printing wouldn't necessarily be out. Screen printing is good for larger quantities (usually 24+) of the same design.

Also I would go with those services however, they seem pricey?

The key with those services is that you don't have to pay anything until you sell a design. For example, with cafepress you can upload your design and put it on a product so that it shows up in your store (that they create for you).

You don't pay anything, however they set a base price for the product and you can set your markup above that price. So if their "base price" is $12 for a t-shirt, then you can price it in your store at $18 and you don't have to pay anything.

When someone orders a t-shirt from your store, cafepress prints it on demand and sends you the difference between their baseprice and your marked up price.

So the $12 baseprice (for example) covers the garment, the printing, the hosting of the store, the ecommerce processing, customer service, etc.

So once I get to 15 posts I can ask people here to make me these t-shirts?

Yes, once you reach 15 posts, you will be allowed access to post a service request in the T-ShirtForums Classifieds area.

So if you wanted to see if a forum member could print the 10 t-shirts for you, you would put all the specifications of what work you needed done (how many shirts, what color, what sizes, sample artwork to be printed, print locations, how to contact you, etc) in a "Service Request" post in the classifieds and members from the forum who are interested in doing the work will respond to you via PM or whichever method you specify in your post.

I am still confused on how I should go about getting these shirts made profesionally and cheap.

Getting 10 t-shirts made professionally AND cheap may be a challenge. I'm sure it can be done, but generally you get better pricing when you do larger runs of t-shirts.

plan on getting in the business, but I do not want to invest in expensive equipment just yet, I know someone who bought the iron on transfers and did it himself, is this profesional looking and longlasting?

If you aren't interested in getting the equipment yet, then your options probably are to use a print on demand service like the ones I listed above or to find a company to print them for you using plastisol transfers.

"iron on transfers" have come a long way They aren't "ironed on" anymore (for professional results). When done right, they are printed with special inks on quality transfer paper and put on with a professional grade heat press.

You can learn about a lot of this stuff by reading some of the forum threads in the various heat press and screen printing forums.

 

[binki]

So whats the best way for me to go about this?

Maybe someone here can do it. I am sure someone over at screen printing university will do it.

 

[T-BOT]

~~~~~~ If you're not in a big rush

a transfer manufacturer may be able to squeeze IN your job with another job when runing a 4-5-6 color job of JUMBO 25x38 size transfer sheets.

pardon the multiple use of the word job. However....

this would cost you a LOT less, the transfer guy makes more/less waiste and you get top notch quality transfers.

then pick up a few shirts/heat press the transfers. VOILA-BABY.

......move on to the next project.

 

[taylormade]

What do you consider cheap? My local spot does the printing with the tee's for around 10 bucks a tee with 3-4 colors

 

[TaylorTees]

I think Custom Plastisol transfers would be a great way to go, and get a heat press... that way you can order a dozen or so of the images.. and you can purchase any color shirts you want, and press them yourself.. Need more.. just press more =)