I have been tasked with coming up with shirts for my car club, I have a logo but 0 silk screening experience, Is there someone I can get in touch with to get the shirts silk screened printed? I’m happy to buy plates, ink or what ever material I need. I make a fantastic assistant, so I am more than happy to help.
A couple of questions to help this along…
1.) How many are you wanting to produce?
2.) Are you going to been needing more in the future and if so, how many in a batch, how many times a year?
3.) What color shirt are these going on?
4.) How many colors is the design?
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You may want to consider using dye sublimation as well. It is much easier to get training, a much easier process, and quicker/cleaner as well. Only real constraint is you have to use on a synthetic shirt material like polyester. And maybe the longevity of the image over the weeks/months/years of wearing and washing.
Never mind…
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1.) 15-20
2.) As we grow and obtain new members ( we are over making to account for growth)
3.) Black mechanic shirts
4.) 3 colors
- What’s your time frame?
You’re on the bubble between several different methods to get the shirts considering the quantity, number of colors, and desire to print on black.
Honestly, I’d recommend either DTG printing or screen printed iron on transfers, both from an outside service company.
DTG is order what you need, and allows for full photographic color for no extra cost. Iron on transfers would involve ordering more than needed, but would be easy to iron-on/ heat press onto shirts as needed in the future with the extras.
Example links ( not specific recommendations):
DTG - https://www.bigfrog.com/
Transfers - https://ninjatransfers.com/
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Something I’ve been looking at was dye sublimation HTV.
Its supposedly an HTV that can be sublimated on, then heat transfer applied to dark colored shirts as long as you can print / cut or contour cut.
I know that Sure Cuts A Lot has a print/cut function, though I haven’t gotten to play with it as of yet.
Thats the shirt Im working with. Seems like heat transfer may not work out since they seem to last about 20 washes or so.
I don’t know where you’re getting that information but I have 10-year-old shirts with heat transfers that have lasted for more than 20 washes. Many, many more than 20 washes.
Maybe its referring to at home DIY transfer vs commercially available transfer?
Yeah, the Avery brand that you get at walmart, office depot, Etc which are printed on an inkjet and applied with an iron and ironing board at home absolutely stuck and do not last.
You want to use real HTV, a vinyl cutter and a heat press for standard HTV.
Pretty much the same with the dye sublimatable HTV.
If I was in your position, I would get one of the shirts that you’re going to use, go check out a place called Joinus off Harry Hines (look it up on google maps) and get a few different variations of HTV and check it out.
I believe they even have the sublimatable HTV.
Can you post a picture of the logo?
Would give a better idea of what you trying to accomplish.
Ah that makes perfect sense.
So high quality HTV cannot be printed on an Ink-Jet?
No regular inkjet ink is for paper. It’s not intended for the kind of wear you get with clothing.
Dye sublimation is Dye, not really ink. And it will print on HTV. You have to cut HTV with one of the 3 vinyl cutter options we have in creative arts.
Overall though:
I agree W/ @Hardsuit … it’ll be cheaper & faster to order them from Custom Ink or a tshirt company of your choosing.
When making 15-20 black shirts
Airbrush + stencils:
you’re looking at an hour per shirt, and $40-50 just for the paint, basecoat & topcoat, plus 3-4 stencils.
I made these hoodies awhile back and they looked good for 5yrs. While there’s only ‘two colors’ there, There’s also a base coat and a top coat that needed to happen for the hoodie to look good & last.
Silk screens: Probably averages to 1hr/shirt.
$35/screen x 3 or 4 screens= 105-140 in screens.
Then you’ll need transparencies for each screen, to expose and dry each screen and additional colors.
THEN you’ll need to align each of the screens in the carousel, THEN screen print and dry.
If you’re determined to do home-made black shirts, heat transfer vinyl and dye sublimation is the way to go.
Plz keep in mind: I teach dye sub painting & have a background in graphic design, and @Hardsuit has been doing printmaking for decades.
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Why don’t we just print up some mechanic patches for your shirts? We can do that in dye sub for around $5 in ink (total) + $2/patch.
Its more of time constraint than cost, although is a fsctor is a factor as well.
May i see an example of the patch?
Here are some examples from online-
You buy blank sublimation patches, we heat set the color images into them, you sew them to the shirt.
Design considerations- I would do your logo on a white background. Edge to edge color seems to fade right at the stitching and looks weird.
These are patches I made. You can see the fading near the stitching.
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This is the logo:
Its approx 11x4 on the back of the shirt and the other print on thr front of the shirt.
Yes, dye sublimation
So you will cut white vinyl, apply to shirts. Printout dye sub, and apply that to the htv in the shirt.
You need to take classes in vinyl cutting and dye sub printing to accomplish this.
Sisser glitter white or sisser white are good htv choices
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I have a plotter at home, so im familar with cutting, just not sublimation