Newbie Help...

[Keystone Kustom Decals 11]

I've got everything down to making HTV shirts...except placement.

 

Anyone have any tips or secrets?

Best tools to use?

 

I second guess myself alot when laying out a design, resulting in a few shirts being off centered...

 

Thanks in advance for any help, this forum has helped me alot already with past issues.

[skener 11]

Hi I use a board that is a shirt shape that the wife has for her embroidery so I sometimes load onto that and mark with a chalk stick, however  mostly I usually lie them on my heat press and use the good old fashioned  rule and just take measurements. Sometimes its hard to get precise measurements but with the nature of the beast sometimes don't really matter, depending on the design of course. I think mainly for just text in the design having it straight is the most important as if you are slightly off with centre it wont be seen as much as the slope if not straight. 

[Macon Innovations 228]

http://www.uscutter.com/Tee-Square-It-Transfer-Alignment-Tool

Works great for me

[Wildgoose 4,200]

If there isn't a crease already down the middle of the shirt I fold it in half and press it for a couple seconds to establish the middle then fold your HTV (backwards if it's stick) and make a small crease top and bottom in the carrier that will get you very close. You can also use a clear ruler to check that you are square to the crease by aligning the bottom of lettering perpendicular to the center seam. 

 

There is also a high zoot Hotromix laser alignment tool but it probably costs more than your press so unless you are really craning out volume it might be hard to justify.