How to Create T-Shirt Designs

What you'll need: Safety-Kut block, pen, carving tools, ink, and a t-shirt

There are many places you can go to have a T-shirt designed for you--but such places can be expensive, take time and may not offer exactly what you want. So why not design a T-shirt yourself? Once you have the materials, you can create a design and stamp it on your T-shirt in an hour or less.

Things You'll Need

• 1 Safety-Kut block, 3/8-inches deep Carving tools (such as a Speedball set, paring knife or razor blade) Permanent marker T-shirt Fabric paint Sheet of paper Optional: Transfer paper

Instructions

How to Design Your T-shirt

1. 

   Decide what design you want on your T-shirt and draw or trace it onto the Safety-Kut block. It's a good idea to start with a simple design, but if you like, you can use transfer paper to copy an image onto the block.

2. 

   As you begin to carve, keep your fingers behind the blade at all times so you do not cut yourself. Start by carving an outline around your design, then carve out the larger area.
   Once you carve out your design, you will have made a stamp to stamp ink on your T-shirt. Any space you carve out on your block will not be printed on your T-shirt--only the areas you leave uncarved will appear on your T-shirt.

3. 

   Go over the edges with a fine blade to make sure they are sharp and clear. Any imperfections of line (including those caused by hesitation marks when you are cutting) will appear on your T-shirt--so make sure the carving is as clear and crisp as possible.

4. 

   Take your stamp and apply fabric paint or ink to it. Cover it thoroughly but do not put so much paint on the stamp that it threatens to run off the side, as this will result in unintended lines and blots appearing on your T-shirt. On the other hand, too little ink may result in your design looking a bit mottled. Experiment first on a scrap of cotton to see the effects of too much/too little ink.

   If paint gets on your stamp where you don't want it, take a paper towel and carefully wipe it off. Make sure your fingers do not have ink on them before moving on to the next step.

5. 

   Lay your T-shirt down on a clean, flat surface, and place a piece of paper inside the T-shirt, under the spot where you want your design. (This paper will catch any excess paint that comes through the T-shirt, so that your stamp won't show up on the back of your T-shirt when it's only intended for the front.) Smooth out any wrinkles in the fabric.

   Take the stamp, position it over the T-shirt where you want your design to be, and set it down on the fabric. Hold the stamp on the T-shirt with one hand; with the other hand, gently press down over each part of the design to ensure proper coverage. Use one hand to hold the T-shirt down while you pull the stamp up from the T-shirt with the other hand.

6. 

   After the paint is dry, iron the reverse side of the fabric to "set" the paint, as most fabric paints need to be heat-sealed. Once you've heat-sealed your design, you can wash and dry it, following the instructions on the paint jar.

Tips & Warnings

• You don't have to use a Safety-Kut block--any malleable surface will do. For instance, you can cut a baking potato in half and use that. The same goes for carving tools: a paring knife will also do the job. If you want to use a photograph or illustration for your design, buy transfer paper from an art supply store. Saral makes transfer paper that acts like carbon paper, leaving chalk rather than messy carbon behind. Start with a simple design--something graphic and bold, with simple, clean lines that will be easy to apply fabric paint to. Once you've gotten used to the process, experiment with more complex designs, making sure to keep paint well out of any small areas that shouldn't be inked. To change the texture of your design, experiment with different methods of laying the paint on your stamp. For example, using a brush to apply a thin layer of paint will transfer the brush strokes to your T-shirt, making it appear as though you painted the design on your shirt freehand.

• When carving your design, always keep your fingers behind the blade. Otherwise your hands may slip and you could end up with a nasty cut.

Resources

• Wikipedia article about printmaking