Monday, July 30, 2012

Screen Printing Prep, part 2

Hi, this is Rossie again with further instructions for screen printing!

Screen Printing will take place at Anna's place in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, August 1st.  The address and parking directions went out by email.  If you are missing them email us at

Did you gather up some t-shirts? Canvas bags? Quilting fabric?  If so, fabulous.  If not, get on it! Wednesday is quickly approaching!

Further steps you should take before arriving on Wednesday:
1.  Wash whatever you plan on printing.
2.  Dry it in a clothes dryer if that's what you plan on doing once it is printed.
3.  Figure out where on it you would like to print.  This third step is pretty straightforward for bags, but slightly trickier for t-shirts.  You might want to put on a few shirts that you own and see where they are printed (right below the collar? 2 inches below? 3 below? what looks best to you?)

4.  Mark your item so that you know where to print. (You can wait to do this if you want)
A couple of tricks: put on the shirt and use masking tape to mark a horizontal line:
You want to make sure that your markings are level so that when you print the t-shirt it won't turn out lopsided.  You can verify that you've marked a level line by checking the sides...the tape should be the same amount down from the armpit seam on both sides.

You should think about the location of the kelp strip so that it doesn't end up somewhere unfortunate on your bust.  Figure out where you want that kelp strip and then mark a line on your shirt 2 inches above where you'd like the kelp strip.
You should also mark the middle on the shirt (up/down).

An alternative to using masking tape is using a water-soluble marker. Just put in a few dots as guides for placing the screen.  

 Folding the shirt using the seams and then marking the fold works well.
I will help you with this on Wednesday if this is confusing as written here. :-)

5.  Mount your fabric.  Finally, for each item you plan on printing, take a piece of cardboard and some pushpins and mount the item onto the cardboard.  This provides a nice surface to print on and prevents ink from seeping to the back of the t-shirt. Do not stretch the fabric, just lay it smooth and flat and pin it down.  

Brenda will bring extra cardboard and I will bring extra push pins on Wednesday.
See you there (address and other details are in your email!)

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