Aaron636r

Aligning tshirt vinyl properly

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Does making a heat pressed vinyl image on a shirt get easier to line up over time???  Geez, I just cant seem to get anything straight.  I mean, I really suck!!  I know im overly picky on stuff like this...but damn.

Anyone have any tricks they care to share?

Thanks

Aaron

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Guest fivestar

I wouldn't press without a t-squareit.  Handiest tool I have found for t-shirt alignment.

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In my set of alignment tools, I have several sizes of Fiskar acrylic (see-thru) rulers that work great.  Got them from Amazon for a pretty good price.

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Guest fivestar

I just fold the shirt in half and press it. that serves as my prepress and also gives me a vertical center line to go by.

Yes that's how I do it if they are 2XL or bigger and there's no folder line.

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I typically just center the design and use a regular ruler to measure down from the top of the shirt on both corners of the design.

I also use a regular framing square (the kind carpenters use) for the "right pocket" decal placement.

azdecals

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Maybe it is the size of my platen (16x20), but I just make sure the shirt overhang is even on all sides. I use my fingers to measure how far down/over for each one depending on sizes. You'll get a feel/rhythm for it after a while and they go pretty fast. Occasionally, on the larger sizes, I question myself and actually get a ruler out but they are always right on using the method above.

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It gets easier with time.  One of those see-through acrylic rulers like CyberSultan mentioned would be good.  Folding and pre-pressing would be a good idea also.  Starting out, you can measure and find the center of your design, then align that with the center of the shirt.  You can double check by measuring the edges of the design on each side, to the edge of the shirt or sleeve seam.  If you think you had it centered, and it's 5" from one edge, and 7" from the other, try again.   :)  Be careful not to stretch the fabric when measuring, don't pull the fabric any more than what you need to pull out a wrinkle/fold etc.  Just get it all laid flat.

Making sure it's straight, what I do is hold it up at arms length.  The stickiness of the film is usually enough to hold it in place if you don't move too fast.  I hold by the very outer corners of the shoulders as straight as I can.  Take your time and don't rush.  Your eye is actually very accurate.  It will come in time.  

If there is text in your design, imagine a straight line under the bottom of the letters of the *longest* line, and keep an eye on that when checking level.  If there's no text, try to decide what part of the design your eye is most naturally drawn to, when a person is looking at the shirt, and align that. 

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Lots of good info here! After pressing over1,000 shirts/hoodies I still 2nd guess myself. Some are right on target and some just drive me crazy! LOL!!

what I really hate doing as much as I hate cleaning the oven is the small right chest pieces, those take me forever even with the logoit!! Anyone got any tips for this??

Renee

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I usually eyeball it. I pick either the center  line on the shirt or align it evenly left & right I find the center of my design & mark it with a sharpie. When I place the design down I sometimes use the patten as my straight edge  & I pick any straight line (like bottom of text) and eyeball the patten to that line. for me it's the fastest most accurate way I know.

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I got a mannequin to use for that purpose mainly.  Its just a bust, but I place the graphic and mark it and then I'm able to just adjust it out with the LogoIt! as the sizes go up.  The bust is also handy for displaying shirts on a sales table or whatever.

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I got a mannequin to use for that purpose mainly.  Its just a bust, but I place the graphic and mark it and then I'm able to just adjust it out with the LogoIt! as the sizes go up.  The bust is also handy for displaying shirts on a sales table or whatever.

Good idea! where did you get the bust from?

Renee

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All good ideas.  I'm finding experience is key here in aligning....

It really is, I remember the first time I went to press a shirt and measured, remeasured, and was sooo hesitant to trust it was in the right location. After so many shirts it's like secondhand. I was at a seminar once that stated because every body is slightly different and will hang slightly different on each person. Therefore, there is a variance for error and nobody will notice. I know for me, I'm always looking around at our local HS at garments I've made to see how they look. If they only how much went into those garments.

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I got a mannequin to use for that purpose mainly.  Its just a bust, but I place the graphic and mark it and then I'm able to just adjust it out with the LogoIt! as the sizes go up.  The bust is also handy for displaying shirts on a sales table or whatever.

Good idea! where did you get the bust from?

Renee

For some reason women seem to take offense to me wanting them to try on shirts and let me position graphics on their chest.  So, I started shopping for a mannequin to use and found they were pretty expensive.  I did find one inflatable torso that I almost bought, but one day I was at Dillards and asked a manager if they had any damaged mannequins that he would be throwing out or willing to part with.  He gave me a bodice that was pretty dirty and had a broken head hole.  It is really handy and takes all of my prodding and molesting without any complaints.  I started bringing it with me as a crutch because its sometimes easier to demonstrate how things will look when I'm doing custom stuff on demand.  Since I had it with me I started using it as a display and just throwing a hat over the broken neck hole.  Now she is my best buddy and goes to most any show with me.  After seeing how much use I get from her, now I would be willing to pay the money for a good used one if she ever leaves me.

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what I really hate doing as much as I hate cleaning the oven is the small right chest pieces, those take me forever even with the logoit!! Anyone got any tips for this??

Renee

I heard once that the front chest logo should be "over the heart".  Starting out, I used to always get too far to the side.  What I started doing was taking measurements from shirts that I already had, if I liked where the logo was placed (not ones I had printed).  I would measure both down from the collar, and from the centerline.  Measurements vary, a taller design will be higher than a shorter one, and if you're doing a series of same size logos on different size shirts, it will vary too.  One example, I have a shirt design that I've been selling on ebay, where the front logo is about 4.5" wide by maybe 2.5" tall.  I come down 4" from the collar to top of design, and I measure about 6.5" from the center to the far edge on large and XL shirts.  I'll come down another 1/2" or so for 2X/3X, and go up 1/2" or so on smaller sizes.  I'm happy with how they turn out.

Long day and I'm probably not making much sense, short answer, I think I downloaded this from here a while back.

Direct2Shirt-Image-Placement-Cheat-Sheet.pdf

Direct2Shirt-Image-Placement-Cheat-Sheet.pdf

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