Create Ones Own T-Shirt Design - For Starters

If you have a budget for your project, here are some ways to design your shirt very inexpensively: Limit your imprint colors to 1 or 2. Each additional color in the design will increase the price. Try to stick to a front chest or back only imprint. Adding more locations such as the back or sleeve as well will also increase your cost per piece. The color of the t-shirt will also effect your cost. White t-shirts are fairly inexpensive, color t-shirts are usually around a dollar more per shirt than white. Light color t-shirts can sometimes be cheaper than dark color t-shirts.

How about painting something on your t-shirt? No, you need not be painting incredibly creative designs on your t-shirt. Even the simplest of design or patterns may work just as well. For example, you can draw different phases of the moon, hearts, candies, and other such simplistic patterns. And, if you cant sketch even these, then just draw basic shapes such as triangle or squares.

Don't forget that baby clothes can also be used in a t-shirt quilt. How cute would it be to have your grandchild use a quilt made from your child's baby clothes? Very cute, actually.

When considering your custom apparel design, an important factor you might overlook is the color of the shirt. While white shirts are least expensive, they are not the best selling for printing. Our independent studies have shown that red ink on black is actually the best seller for custom T shirt printing. But does that coincide with your company's color scheme? Something to consider...

Digital printing is another method that is used for t-shirt printing. This is printing method which is gaining popularity gradually. For printing the t-shirt, it is stretched on a frame below the ink jet printer head. The printing on the garment is done exactly as it is done on the paper. Inkjet transfer paper is used for printing the same design on large number of garments with ease. This method is good to choose if you want to reproduce certain photographic prints, logos or other multi-colored images.

Another method is Direct To Garment (DTG) printing. This is a method of running the actual shirt through a printer which prints the image on to the shirt just as a standard in home ink jet printer would print out a document from your computer. There has been some talk in the design community of the ink drying or clumping up in these machines, but I have seen the work they do and it looks great and feels great on the shirt. This is a higher end option at this time with some printers going for around $25,000. You could get a used on for around $16,000, but it would take a lot of shirts to pay off that large of an investment.

Share the Message: The unique design of your shirt, shoes or cap will spark a comment or compliment. This is your opportunity to start the conversation about Jesus and His message of love, hope and salvation. A t-shirt and five minutes could be all it takes to change a life!