How to Screen Print
Screen printing a t-shirt can be a fun, easy and inexpensive way to create a completely unique piece of clothing. With a handful of materials and a little investment of time, you can literally create a t-shirt that has anything your imagination can come up with on it.
Required Material:
- T-Shirt
- Glue
- Screen Printing Ink
- Sheer Material (old curtains, nylons or tulle)
Required Tools :
- Embroidery hoop
- Paint Brushes
- Computer
- Printer
Instructions:
- Select or create the image that you want on your t-shirt. Images with good contrast work best for screen printing
- Depending on the image editing program you are using, select the appropriate option to save the picture in a black and white format.
- Ensuring that it is no larger than the embroidery hoop, print out the picture in the size you want it to be on your shirt.
- Pull the sheer material through the embroidery hoop, and then secure it in place.
- Using a pencil, place the embroidery hoop on top of the picture (with the sheer material sitting directly on the surface of the paper) and trace the image onto the sheer material.
- Once the tracing is complete, turn over the embroidery hoop. Use glue to cover all of the white space in the image (the ink will not go anywhere that you put glue).
- Once you have filled all the white space with glue, allow time for the glue to fully dry.
- Once the glue is completely dry, place the embroidery hoop on the t-shirt (the sheer material should be sitting directly on the surface of the t-shirt).
- Apply the screen printing ink through the sheer material (to get the best result, you should apply enough ink so that the t-shirt is fully saturated, but should avoid using an excessive amount of ink).
- Remove the embroidery hoop from the t-shirt and give the screen printing ink time to dry.
- Follow the instructions included on your screen printing ink to permanently set the image onto the t-shirt (in many cases, this will involve ironing the picture on the t-shirt).