Design your own shirt

Design your own t-shirt can be enjoyable, innovative, and even give some cash if you decide to sell your designs. Whether you’re going to print the shirt yourself or submit it to a skilled printer, you can still model your shirt at home.

1. Part 1 Planning Your Design

2. Pick a color scheme.

3. Add dimension to the design.

4. Balance your design

5. Determine the t-shirt design placement.

6. Perform a final design mockup

7. Part 2 Making a Digital Image of the Design

8. Use Adobe Photoshop to touch up your paper sketches

9. Use computer software to create the design

10. Add text to the design, if desire

11. Create a prototype

12. Produce the shirt(s).

13. Part 3 Screen-Printing Your Design

14. Gather your supplies

15. Prepare the printing screen.

16. Mix the emulsion and the sensitizer together

17. Apply the emulsion on the screen

18. Place the transparency down backward on the screen

19. Burn the design into the emulsion

20. Rinse the screen.

21. Place waterproof tape around the edges of the underside of the screen.

22. Lay your t-shirt on a flat surface.

23. Spread a tablespoon of screen printing ink on the top of the screen.

24. Squeegee the screen.

25. Cure the ink

26. Wash your screen once you are done making your shirts.

27. Part 4 Stenciling Your Design

28. Gather your materials.

29. Tape the design to a piece of contact paper.

30. Use a sharp craft knife to cut out the black parts of the design

31. Peel the sticky side off the contact paper.

32. Place a piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt.

33. Use a sponge brush to paint on the fabric paint.

34. Peel the contact paper off of the t-shirt when the paint is dry.

35. Part 5 Bleach Painting Your Design

36. Use bleach safely.

37. Gather your supplies

38. Place your shirt on a flat surface.

39. Use the white chalk to sketch out your design on the shirt.

40. Fold the sides of the shirt under the cardboard

41. Prepare the bleach.

42. Dip your brush into the bleach.

43. Use steady strokes to trace the chalk lines of your design

44. Finish tracing your design.

45. Let the shirt sit in the sun for at least an hour.

46. Rinse and hand wash your shirt.

Part 1

· Planning Your Design:

Thought about what the model reflects. You can advertise your cleaning company, rock band, or your favorite sports team. You may use a personal example. Project intent must decide project.

Whether you advertise a business, group, sporting team, or product, you’ll likely need to concentrate on logo. For example, the Nike swoosh logo is a simple but effective design. A sporting team layout can feature the team colors or the mascot of the team. A band layout can concentrate on a band photo or a graphic reflecting the band’s style or sound.

If you design your own t-shirt to highlight a specific illustration or painting, you’ll need to concentrate on how a t-shirt looks. Talk about how the illustration is original and how the illustration works.

Try using your project picture. Use your photo. You can use someone else’s image, but only if you obtained legal rights to use that image. You could buy a stock image.a stock image.

· Pick a color scheme:

Select paint scheme. When designing a t-shirt, considering color contrast is significant. It means how certain shades of ink show against a lighter colored shirt or a darker colored shirt. Some ink colors on the computer screen look more vivid than they do when printed.When using lighter tops, avoid pastel colors like orange, light blue and light pink. Such colors will be apparent on the shirts, but not at a distance. And if you’re designing a logo shirt, make sure the logo is visible from far back!

When you choose to use pastel colors, apply a darker color outline to the lighter color to highlight text and make reading easier.

Darker shirts look better with lighter colors like pastels. But be cautious when using lighter colors on darker shirts like cardinal (dark blue), maroon, and green woods. Both colors can look great on the screen or in a drawing, but sometimes the shirt color distorts the ink color when printing. They can appear more brown or gray.

When you choose to use Adobe Illustrator to create your project, Global Color settings will support color schemes greatly

· Add dimension to the design:

When you apply your colors to the model, it may look good, but still somewhat flat or one-dimensional. To build more depth in a certain design area, add a color that is the color underneath. This brightens the layout and gives it some dimension. When you intend to use highly manipulative software (such as Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Gimp, Adobe Illustrator, or Paint Shop Pro), you can use a generic photo and dramatically change it to suit your needs.

A vector outline on Inkscape is a particularly effective way to resize an image if needed.

· Balance your design:

Balancing the project. It means integrating all sections or components into a whole. How you do that depends on your design’s structure. Perhaps your model has many smaller components, including stars, plants or animals. Or maybe it’s a broad design with one main figure or image.[4] Think about how to make the layout look unified, so all sections or components work together. Instead of eliminating an object, a balanced image instantly draws the eye.

• Determine t-shirt design positioning:

Determine the t-shirt design placement. Would your model work better as a focused image, a t-shirt image on the top left or a wraparound image?

If you’re designing a t-shirt for a brand or company, a simple shirt center design may be the most effective.

You can also use the t-shirt back to include a marketing slogan (“Just Do It”). Or an album line from a group song you’re planning for.

· Part 2 make a digital image design:

• Determine t-shirt design positioning:

Full final design mockup. It’s best before putting your ideas on your t-shirt. Try various styles and color combinations. Include color contrast and dimension. Ensure the picture is consistent and cohesive. If in doubt, get a second opinion. Ask friends, family, or colleagues what style and color scheme they like best.

· Use computer software to create the design:

Using computer software to model. If you’re not pleased with your paper drawings, using computer software to draw line art on Photoshop.

If you have a computer, you can paint and draw directly on Photoshop or a similar program.

· Add text to the design, if desire:

Search for a font that complements, not overwhelms, your overall layout. The font must work with theimage(s) to create a balanced format.

Think of the fonts on some more well-known logos or models. The font must reflect the overall style of the business or brand. For example, Nike’s Just Do It’s slogan is in a bold, simple font like their bold, simple swoosh logo. The font used for a sports team or garage rock band, however, may be more complex and decorated.

Make sure that any filters you use are also added to the text. If you’re dealing with Photoshop layers, you’ll need to drag the font layers below the image effects layers. Use free online fonts like defont.com. Brusheezy.com can also access free brush designs. See how to attach fonts to your Mac, Illustrator, or Photoshop if needed.

When design sounds fun, you can make your own.

· Create a prototype:

Building pattern. The easiest way is to print the template and iron it onto a shirt. Nevertheless, if you want to check your design quality, you can employ a printing company to create a model.

· Produce the shirt:

For a small-scale project, the model may start ironing.

Though, if you want to make larger-scale shirts, you can pay a printing company to make them for you.

· Part 3:

· Gather your supplies:

A plain t-shirt 50 ml bottle of degreaser (available at your local art store) 1 liter of cold water A large brush 500 ml of emulsion A small bottle of sensitizer A bottle of screen printing ink A squeegee or coating tray A small wooden stick A transparency A printing screen You can buy a printing screen at your local art store. And make your own by buying a mesh screen and stretcher case. Extend the mesh across the frame, staple the edges so that the mesh is taut. Of regular shirt designs, a 110–195 mesh works best. Use 156–230 mesh for fine multi-color designs

· Prepare the printing screen:

Prepare printscreen. Combine degreaser and cold water. Place the brush in the mixture, then brush to the window.

Carefully clean both sides of the window. Only give the screen a light brush, so don’t worry about putting too much of the mixture on the screen.

Let the dry screen.

· Mix the emulsion and the sensitizer together:

Combine powder and sensitizer. Take 20 ml of water in the sensitizer container. Shake the sensitizer for about a minute.

Remove the emulsion sensitizer.

Use the small wooden stick to combine sensitizer and emulsion.

Emulsion color must change from blue to green. The emulsion should also form small bubbles.

Place the lid loosely back on the emulsion and in a dark area or space for an hour. Check after an hour that all the tiny emulsion bubbles vanished.

If after an hour they don’t vanish, leave the emulsion for another hour until the bubbles are gone.

· Apply the emulsion on the screen:

Drip a line of image emulsion across the screen in a very dim room or low red light and use a squeegee to spread it around. The emulsion can spill through the screen, so be sure to squeege both sides of the screen. You can also use a coating tray to add the emulsion to the camera. Place the monitor on a clean towel and turn it slightly away from you. Place the coating tray at the bottom of the screen and display the emulsion carefully as you push the tray up the monitor.

Leave the emulsion in a black room for about twenty minutes. Using fan to clean the screen

· Place the transparency down backward on the screen.

Put transparency backwards on screen. Now you’re ready to burn your emulsion image. Do this by putting the screen flat, reversing the transparency and placing a piece of glass over the transparency to ensure it doesn’t move

· Burn the design into the emulsion:

Burn the emulsion model. A 500-watt lightbulb will burn the transparency picture in about fifteen minutes.

The exact times for this phase depend on the light and emulsion you use. Clear instructions should be on the packaging of the purchased emulsion.

· Rinse the screen:

Let the screen soak in water for about two minutes. Then wash off any remaining emulsion with a hose or tub.

· Place waterproof tape around the edges of the screen:

On the top, the flat side of the screen will go face-down, and the side with the frame is where you’ll use the ink.

· Lay your t-shirt on a flat surface:

Make sure there’s no wrinkles. Place the display on top of the t-shirt, where you’d like to be. Place the monitor on top to match the display and model.

Clip your shirt to a cardboard plate. This will keep the t-shirt clean and unwrinkled. It also makes moving the t-shirt to a safe spot later to dry easier.

If necessary, keep a buddy close when spreading the ink.

· Spread a tablespoon of screen printing ink on the top of the screen.

Using your squeegee, cover the screen by spreading ink from top to bottom.

Actually, the mesh is quite dense, so this move is more of a primer. Use very light pressure to avoid forcing ink through the screen.

· Squeegee the screen:

With the computer filled, you’re ready to transfer the shirt design.

Use the 45 ° angle squeegee in both hands to spread tension equally. If necessary, ask a friend to hold the screen.

Slide the tincture back over the flooded screen

· Cure the ink:

Using a hairdryer, apply heat to the model for several minutes. Repair the ink before using the next screen to add additional graphic layers in different colors. If you use and repair the correct screen-printing method, your t-shirt will be free.

• Dry your computer after making your shirts:

Using cold water to wash the ink with a sponge. Let the screen clean.

· Part 4 Stenciling Your Design:

· Gather your materials:

O stencil on a t-shirt, you’ll need: a black and white print from your model. It’s necessary to use your design’s black and white printout for easy tracing.

A sheet of contact paper or transparency A construction knife or exact knife A flat t-shirt A piece of cardboard large enough to cover the shirt’s front

· Tape model into contact paper:

Contact paper is material used to cover books. It has an ordinary, sticky side that peels off. You want to tape the paper to the peeling side to make the template noticeable through the front of the contact sheet — the non-sticky side. You can also use a clear piece or transparent paper. Add it to your tape model printout.

• Using sharp craft knife to cut black model parts:

Place papers on a flat surface, like a board. Trace lines with a craft knife or knife. The black sections you cut out are the areas of the model that will be filled with paint

· Peel the sticky side off the contact paper:

Remove ordinary paper from contact material with the model. Place the sticky stencil on the t-shirt, make sure it’s smooth, not wrinkled. When using transparency or clear paper instead of contact paper, add transparency to the tape shirt

• Put cardboard inside the t-shirt:

It separates the front and back so the dye doesn’t spill to the other arm.

• Use a sponge brush to paint fabric:

Just put color on the spots cut from the contact paper — the spots painted in dark on the t-shirt. Let the paint dry. Check paint by rubbing colored spots gently. When paint drops on your palm, it’s not dry.

• Paint t-shirt contact paper when paint is dry:

You’ll have a t-shirt stencil now.

If you want more than one stenciled t-shirt, use the stencil to make another shirt.

· Part 5 Bleach Painting Your Design

· Use bleach safely:

Bleach painting is a fun way to create a design on a t-shirt, particularly text-based designs. But note, bleach is poisonous, so keep it out of sight of children.Always protect your eyes, clothes, and any open cuts from leach contact.

If you have sensitive skin, wear thin kitchen gloves when bleaching.

· Gather your supplies:

A plastic bristle brush (go for a cheap one, as you’ll only bleach it anyway!) A glass or ceramic bowl A white towel or rag White chalk A piece of cardboard A dark colored cotton blend shirt You could try this technique on a lighter colored shirt, but the bleach painting should look better on darker colors.

· Place your shirt on a flat surface:

Then slip cardboard inside your shirt. It will work equally when you write your project. It’ll also avoid bleaching through your shirt’s back.

• Use white chalk to draw the shirt design:

This could be your favorite saying (“Bazinga!” “Reach for Stars”), your band’s name, or your brand’s logo.

Don’t worry if you need the chalk line smudge and re-sketch the model. The chalk lines are washed away once you’ve done the bleach painting

·
Fold the sides of the shirt under the cardboard:

Safe cardboard shirt with elastic bands or tiny clips. This will stop the cardboard from falling when painting.

· Prepare the bleach:

Pour some chlorine cups into the glass or ceramic bowl. Use a towel to wipe drips. You don’t want any bleach falls on your clothing.

· Dip your brush into the bleach:

Drag it to the bowl rim to prevent dripping.

· Use steady strokes to trace the chalk lines of your design.

For an even bleach row, reload every two inches. The cloth can soak the liquid easily, so work quickly, but with a steady hand

· Finish tracing your design:

Instead, take a break to allow bleach to interact with shirt fabric.

See the suit. Any rough spots or light areas? If so, go back with your brush-filled bleach and even out the model.

· Let the sun shirt stay for at least an hour:

The chlorine will be extracted and lightened.

Depending on your shirt’s cotton material, the model color varies from dark red, yellow, purple, or even black.

· Rinse and hand wash your shirt:

Hang it off. Admire the new permanent chlorine model.

Clean the colored shirt. The chalk lines should be washed out, leaving only bleach.