How to Design a Graphic T-Shirt
Graphic T-shirts are an easy way to express your creativity. By drawing your own design on a shirt, you can have a gorgeous graphic print T-shirt that will show off your talent. Furthermore, online companies such as Threadless allow you to design your own graphic T-shirt and have others vote to have it produced. Making your own graphic T-shirt can prove rewarding and fun.
Things You'll Need
- Graphic design program
- Printer
- Iron-on transfer printer sheets
- Iron
- Cotton T-shirt
Instructions
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Open up your graphics program, such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, and create a file with an area of 8.5x11 inches. This is a good size to cover the front of an adult-sized shirt. If creating a child's shirt, consider a smaller file area, depending on the size of your T-shirt and the desired look of your final product.
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Create your design in the graphics program. You can sketch out a design, and scan it into your program.
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If using a sketch, you can also make it look more realistic and have more depth by making it into a vector image. To do so, you will need to use Adobe Illustrator. Navigate to the program's "Live Trace" button on the top toolbar. You can also do this with a photo imported into the image.
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Load your iron-on printer sheets into your printer, and print your design.
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Spread your T-shirt out on an ironing board. Cotton T-shirts designed for printing work best. They're available at most craft stores and will take your design better than most bulk T-shirts. Place your iron-on sheets face down on T-shirt. Iron the print down, gently moving the iron on low heat. Make sure to move the iron consistently to distribute the heat. Allow the transfer sheet to cool and gently pull the transfer paper away, making sure the design is sticking to the shirt.
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Tips & Warnings
For a more professional design, you can also submit your design to Threadless.com and hope it is accepted. If you want to pay for your shirt to be printed, check your local Yellow Pages or see the Resources below for a few companies which will take your design from PDF to printed shirt for a price. Silk screening your design onto a T-shirt is another option for a sleek appearance. The process involves pushing ink onto your shirt through a screen featuring your design. The process is slightly more labor intensive but yields great results. See the Resources below for a step-by-step tutorial on silk screening a shirt. You can also create the design using a stencil. See the References below for more information.
