Screen printing, also referred to as silk screening, is the preferred method of creating and transferring custom designs onto almost any canvas—in this instance, t-shirts.
In fact, screen-printed t-shirts are so popular we're willing to wager that if you looked through your wardrobe right now, you'd likely find at least one.
But have you ever wondered how the screen-printed tee got so popular? Or how the technique behind its creation inspired one of the most influential artists of the 20th century?
Today we answer these questions, and more, while exploring six intriguing facts about screen-printed shirts, including:
- Their connection to a classic Hollywood film
- How their creation is both an art and a science
- How each screen-printed shirt is uniquely singular
1 - The First-Ever Promotional T-Shirt Was Screen Printed
The Wizard of Oz was groundbreaking in many ways, and almost a century later, it still endures as a fan favorite because of its catchy songs and lovable characters.
But did you know that The Wizard of Oz was responsible for the first-ever promotional t-shirt? Better yet, these t-shirts were made using … you guessed it! Screen printing!
The t-shirts were custom designed for the cinema classic and featured a simple design with the name of the movie and the iconic text font. It was given away to fans at the film's premiere in 1939, officially kickstarting the era of promotional t-shirts.
See Also: 7 Must-Know Facts About Screen-Printed Shirts
2 - Screen Printing Adds Texture to Your T-Shirts
Screen printing produces bright, vibrant designs on t-shirts, but did you know it also adds texture to the fabric?
This is because screen printing uses a ink. There are different types of inks - plastisol, waterbased, silicone, and others. We primarily use plastisol - a plastic-based ink that solidifies when cured at around 330℉.
With most screen printing applications, the ink is absorbed into the fabric of your shirt or lays on top and leaves a layer on the surface. When cured, the ink can bend and move with the fabric, creating more texture and feeling in the printed area.
Certain things can be done to limit the feel of the ink on the shirt or give it a soft vintage touch, but for the most part, the shirt changes once the ink is applied.
With over ten years of experience, a staff dedicated to quality, and cutting-edge screen printing technology, your custom printing needs are in safe hands with fancysweetstx.
"We used [fancysweetstx] for company t-shirts … Excellent price, quality, design team, and quick shipping. We are first-time customers, but we'll be back!"
- Christina P. | ★★★★★
3 - Screen Printing Shirts Is an Art and a Science
As a form of art, screen printing involves applying custom designs and artwork to shirts using screens. The artwork can depict any number of things, including logos, images, or even hand-drawn illustrations.
Screen printing enables us to create precise, clearly defined designs that can be easily replicated and mass-produced. Indeed, these consistent results are what drew renowned artist Andy Warhol to screen printing.
Additionally, to create successful screen-printed t-shirts, you need a keen eye for detail paired with the skill and creativity to recreate intricate designs on various materials.
As a science, screen printing involves analyzing how different inks, fabrics, chemicals, and techniques will interact to create a high-quality print. You see, a variable such as how an ink absorbs into a specific fabric will significantly impact the resulting print.
As such, screen printers have to make many decisions and find the perfect balance between art and science to create the stunning designs you see on screen-printed t-shirts.
See Also: Top 4 Ways We Screen Print a Vintage Shirt (With Examples)
4 - Screen Printed T-Shirts Don’t Wash Out
Well, at least they shouldn't. Professional screen printing done by an accredited company with the right washable, heat-treated ink yields a print that does not wash out.
This is one of the quickest ways to determine the quality of a screen-printed t-shirt.
While there are different methods of screen printing, they’re all based on a similar underlying technique.
When every element of the process is executed correctly, including ensuring the right drying temperature and ink, the result is a design that will remain on a shirt for a lifetime.
5 - No Two Screen-Printed T-Shirts Are Exactly Alike
Every screen-printed t-shirt is as unique as you and me. This all goes back to that little fact about screen printing being just as much a science as it is an art.
The 'art' part of the process is not automated, and it’s this human element that introduces minor variations in screen-printed t-shirts. This is why we consider each of our t-shirts uniquely singular.
Note: While slight variations in the garments are expected, fancysweetstx has a strict quality control process to ensure that only the best products are delivered to our customers.
“I came to fancysweetstx with a request to replicate a shirt from the 70s. They did an amazing job with the design, and the shirts are super comfy and good quality.”
- Allene S. | ★★★★★
6 - Your Shirt’s Fabric Determines the Quality of Your Screen-Printed Design
While it's true that it's possible to screen print on almost every material, not all fabrics print the same. For instance, not all fabrics are best for plastisol ink - the most commonly used ink in screen printing and what we use in our shop.
To better understand this, let's examine how screen printing works with the three most common t-shirt fabrics.
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100% Cotton: Cotton t-shirts yield the best results for screen printing. This is because cotton is naturally absorbent and allows screen printing ink to adhere readily to its fibers. Also, as a substrate for screen printing, cotton produces cleaner, better-defined images.
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Poly-Cotton Blends: Poly-cotton blend t-shirts are among the softest shirts on the market, which makes them one of the most popular. However, poly-cotton blends can be challenging to screen print using standard inks.
The polyester in the fabric sometimes causes the ink to migrate or bleed during the curing process. To mitigate this, at fancysweetstx, we closely monitor dryer temperatures and use low cure and low bleed inks to achieve the best results when necessary.
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100% Polyester: Synthetic polyester fibers are more susceptible to dye migration which can cause changes in color in the screen-printed designs.
For instance, a white image screen printed on a red polyester t-shirt may turn pink when overexposed to heat as the shirt's dye particles move and interact with the screen print ink.
To prevent this, polyester shirts require low bleed inks and careful monitoring of the cure temperatures.
Don't forget that at the end of the day, quality is subjective. The person you give your shirts to determines the ultimate quality of the shirt.
One person may prefer a soft shirt, another may like a thick shirt, and another may want a super thick, opaque application of ink.
While you can't please everyone all of the time, always create your shirt with your customer in mind!
Looking For Screen-Printed T-Shirts? We Can Help
Screen printing is what we do; it's what we’re known for. We spend most of our time designing and screen printing stunning Ohio and Midwest t-shirts.
But that's not all. Over the years, we've honed our skills and mastered the art of custom screen printing. Here are a few examples of custom screen-printed t-shirts we've created.
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Vintage Bike Shirts |
Vintage Beer Shirt |
Vintage Coffee Shop Shirts |
If you, your business, or organization need custom screen-printed t-shirts, we'd be happy to help. Get in touch with us today to get your order started.
Learn More About Our Screen Printing Process
For more information about how we achieve such brilliant results with our screen-printed t-shirts, check out some of our behind-the-scenes blog posts linked below:
- How to Burn a Screen for Screen Printing T-Shirts [With Video]
- Embroidery and Screen Printing: Your Company’s Guide to Merchandising
- Screen Printing vs Embroidery: An Honest Buyer’s Opinion
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From statement pieces to charming designs, custom t-shirt printing has become the solution for not only the fashion business but also the construction, warehousing, and landscaping industries.
If you’ve been looking to buy custom t-shirts, you may have noticed two types of printing: heat transfer and screen printing.
But which one is better?
While both methods involve the transfer of an image or pattern onto fabric, they have a lot of differences.
For instance, if you just want a quick and easy way to create a stylish T-shirt, heat transfer printing may be the best option. However, if you want a high-quality print that will last a long time, screen printing is the way to go.
Whichever method you choose, read through our buyer’s guide to get all the information you need before making a purchase.
What is a Heat Transfer?
Heat transfer involves using a heat press to apply both heat and pressure to imprint designs onto fabric.
The design is first printed onto high-quality paper before being positioned and pressed into a garment.
The following steps are involved in the heat transfer process:
- Creating a design on a computer: Graphic design software is used to arrange and model the text and images to be printed.
- Printing the design: Inkjet, sublimation, screen print, or pigment ink is then used to print the design onto heat transfer paper, which is responsible for transferring the printed design onto a t-shirt.
- Trimming the printed image: If necessary, a vinyl cutter is then used to trim the image edges. Any part that’s not cut away will show up on the final product.
- Warming up the heat press: In most cases, the temperature should be in the range of 340°F to 365°F (171°C to 185°C). Your transfer supplier will provide heat and pressure settings.
- Adjusting the pressure: The pressure will vary depending on a fabric’s thickness. As a rule of thumb, the thicker the material, the lighter the pressure.
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Setting the time: Different methods of heat transfer correspond to different press durations. Here’s a general guide for timing the heat press machine:
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- Vinyl Transfer: 7–15 seconds
- Digital Transfer: 10–20 seconds
- Dye Sublimation Transfer: 25–30 seconds
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- Positioning the substrate and transfer: The t-shirt is placed onto the platen, and the heat transfer paper is set face-up on the appropriate location of the t-shirt.
- Pressing the product: Once in place, the handle is pulled down on the press to close it.
- Removing the film: When the timer goes off, the heat press is opened and the film is taken out.
Let's now look at the two main heat transfer methods used in this process: Vinyl and Digital Transfer.
Vinyl Heat Transfer
Vinyl heat transfer or heat transfer vinyl (HTV) is a material that adheres to surfaces like fabric when heat is applied. Vinyl comes in thin sheets made from polyurethane.
HTV has a heat-activated adhesive backing to ensure the vinyl easily transfers to t-shirts when the machine is pressed at the right temperature and pressure.
Digital Heat Transfer
This is similar to printing a photograph onto a garment. However, digital heat transfer uses regular transfer paper instead of vinyl transfer paper.
When the transfer paper is pressed, the ink adheres to the garment, and the graphic image is transferred.
Here are the pros and cons of heat transfer:
| Pros | Cons |
| Environmentally friendly and minimizes carbon footprint | Doesn't last as long as traditional screen printing because of washing and drying |
| Produces high-quality products due to its high resolution | You can’t iron the printed t-shirt because the heat ruins the image |
| Cost-effective for small orders due to the short set-up process | Has a rubbery feel due to the printer ink coverage on the design |
| Can utilize multiple colors as long as they don’t overlap | Unsuitable for printing many units because large quantity runs are time-consuming and expensive |
What Is Screen Printing?
Also known as silk screening, screen printing involves pressing thick ink through a mesh screen to transfer graphics onto a garment. Rather than laying on top of the fabric, the ink soaks into the garment and becomes part of it—ensuring it lasts longer.
Although t-shirts are the most commonly screen printed clothing item, here are other popular screen printed garments:
- Long sleeve t-shirts
- Crew sweatshirts
- Hooded sweatshirts
- Tank tops
- Onesies
The Screen Printing Process
The following is a quick step-by-step screen printing procedure for t-shirt printing.
1. Creating the Design
The process starts by taking the design and converting it to vector format. This allows us to scale the design to the appropriate size for printing. When necessary, the design can also be hand-drawn.
2. Preparing the Screen
A mesh screen (made of silk, polyester, or nylon) that suits the texture and design is chosen. The screen is coated with light-reactive emulsion to be prepared for exposure.
3. Exposing the Emulsion
The emulsion-coated screen is then exposed to bright light to harden it, usually in an exposure unit. A screen must be made for each color and each location of the print. Check out the video below on how we burn screens for making t-shirts.
4. Rinse Out the Screen
After exposure, the light hardens the emulsion such that other screen parts (those not covered by the design/image) are hardened while those covered by design are soft enough to wash away. After a set time of about one minute, the screen is washed to reveal the design. It’s then left to dry to create the stencil.
5. The Actual Printing
The screen is fixed onto a special screen printing board or platen, and ink is added to the screen's top (or one end). A squeegee is then used to pull the ink across the screen. This process pushes the ink through the stencil, imprinting the design on a t-shirt.
6. Dry, Quality Check and Finish
The printed t-shirt is passed through a dryer to cure the ink and ensure it remains smooth before being checked and washed to remove any residue.
| Pros | Cons |
| A cost-efficient method because it can print large quantities pretty fast | Limited to a few colors because you’ll need a screen for each color to be printed |
| Creates a softer product compared to heat transfer because the ink penetrates the fabric | Expensive when not in bulk due to the initial setup cost |
| Produces bright and vivid final products, even on dark fabrics | Uses more equipment and chemicals than heat transfer, which are responsible for the vivid colors |
| Perfect for printing onto polycotton or cotton clothing items | |
| Results in long-lasting and more durable designs |
Deciding Between Heat Transfer and Screen Printing
Your individual needs will largely determine the printing method you choose. Do you want a t-shirt with high-resolution designs that last a few days or better quality t-shirts that last a long time?
Screen printing is still the most popular technique because it produces vibrant, durable patterns on various materials. However, it doesn't give you the freedom to have sophisticated or multiple color images on your t-shirt like heat transfer printing.
So, Which Printing Method Is the Best?
Without a doubt, each of these printing processes brings something distinct to the table. Consider answering these questions to decide between the two:
Q1: Do the t-shirts require complex designs?
If so, consider heat transfer at smaller quantities.
Q2: Do you have a strict budget to stick to?
If you are price sensitive, a transfer can save you setup fees, thus keeping your costs lower.
Q3: How many t-shirts do you want to order?
There is nuance to this, but we generally screen print orders of 25 pieces or greater. Orders of higher quantities with more complex designs are easier to justify the setup associated with screen printing.
Q4: Does your design require unusual placement or multiple different garments and fabrics?
If you are printing in an unusual location, such as on a pocket, we may recommend a transfer. These odd locations may make it difficult to place and secure a garment on a printing board. If we cannot print consistently, it will be better to use a transfer.
If there are many different garments and they are a mix of fabric materials (100% cotton, polyester, spandex, etc.), a transfer will provide the most consistent decoration across all clothing items.
Q5: Do you require on demand printing services?
It's more and more common today for customers to request print on demand. Because of the setup associated with screen printing, transfers can provide an effective method for providing on demand decoration services.
Note: While you can quickly print one or two t-shirts using the heat transfer, it’s much faster to print using screen printing once the setup is complete.
Still not sure?
Get in touch with us and one of our representatives will help you select the best printing method for your t-shirts. You can also check out our blog for more information about t-shirt printing and custom embroidery.
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June is our big month for screen printing rainbow shirts for Pride!
We've been screen printing a lot of custom rainbow shirts for local businesses during the month of June for Pride Month. It's a great opportunity for organizations to put their values of inclusion, diversity, and empathy on display.
There are a few different techniques when it comes to screen printing a rainbow and we've used all of them in the last few weeks. Each method achieves a different look and can be the best option depending on what the customer is looking for.
If you need rainbow shirts or Pride shirts for your organization, we'd love to help! Fill out the contact form on our custom screen printing page to get started.
Read on to learn more about three of our shirt printing techniques and for photo and video examples.
1. Creating a Rainbow Screen Print With Halftones (Gradients)
If a customer wants a consistent looking rainbow gradient print on all of their t-shirts, printing it with half tones is the best option.
When creating the art, we use halftones or gradients to create the rainbow. Before the shirts get to press, our artists separate the design by individual color. This means they pull out each color gradient so we can make a separate screen for printing purposes.
This process can take anywhere from 5-6 screens to get a full color rainbow. The result looks like these shirts we printed for the 16153 Genova Museum of Art (below) and Inside the Five Brewing (above).
There are slight nuances between printing on a white or light colored t-shirt versus a black or dark color t-shirt and the setup for the art and press can be a challenge, but no matter what, we sure love the results!
2. Split Fountain or Rainbow Roll Print
For a split fountain rainbow print, we use 2 to 6 ink colors (depending on the desired rainbow color scheme) on one screen that get blended over each pass with the squeegee.
The inks in this design blend more with each pass of the squeegee making each shirt's print and colors unique!
If you're looking for an original, authentic design, rainbow roll is the way to go. It's the first way that we ever printed a rainbow blend on a shirt and it's still one of our favorite techniques.
3. Spot Color Rainbow Printing
A spot color screen print means that each individual color is its own solid print on a shirt. If you look at the examples above or below, you'll see that each is separate and doesn't blend into the colors next to it.
Most of the shirts that we print are spot color. However, when it comes to rainbow designs, they are a little bit more complicated. The complication primarily resides in the fact that there are so many colors printed on the shirt.
Generally speaking, in screen printing we use one screen for each individual color. Then we print those in succession. The more colors you have, the more screens you need and printheads are required.
This means that when you print a shirt with the colors of the rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple - you must utilize six screens to achieve this.
This is getting a bit technical, but printing all of those colors next to each other without drying in between is challenging. It requires a quality equipment, screens, inks, squeegees, and a lot of practice.
In the end, though, we love the look of a nice rainbow when it comes out right!
4. Direct to Garment Print (DTG)
Direct to garment printing is an evolving technology in the custom decoration field. The appeal for this process is that it's a digital technique. It's not quite screen printing but it's a great way to print a lot of colors on a shirt.
The simplest way to describe direct to garment printing is that it uses digital inks to print directly on a shirt. Think of it like a color printer you have on your desk. There are individual color cartridges with ink that allow you to print a wide color spectrum straight onto a garment.
DTG is a great option when you have a small order with a lot of colors. Because of this, it's a frequent choice when we have rainbow designs.
5. Rainbow Foil Print
For a foil rainbow, we screen print and cure a layer of special adhesive on the shirt, heat press the foil onto the adhesive, and peel off the excess.
For a screen printer, this is kind of a shortcut for rainbow designs. Rather than using multiples screens like with do with halftones or mixing several inks together in the screen like we do with a split fountain print, for foil, we use just one screen and one ink (adhesive).
While the actual screen printing portion of rainbow foil is easier than the screen print techniques listed above, there is a second step to the process - heat seal. After we print the foil adhesive onto the shirt (we use a waterbased adhesive), we then have to take the shirt over to our heat press, cut a section of foil from the roll, press it on the shirt, and peel it off.
This technique isn't as durable as a screen print, but it gives the print a shiny look that only foil can achieve!
Do you need custom rainbow pride shirts? We can help.
Custom screen printing is what we do. As mentioned above, we spend a lot of our summer months printing for organizations that need LGBTQ+ Pride apparel.
Over the years, we've honed our skills and that's why our customers come back to us time and again. The examples above are just a few of the rainbow designed shirts that we've printed.
If your business or organization needs custom rainbow or love themed shirts for Pride month or any other occasion, we'd love to help.
Get in touch with us today to get your order started!
Learn more about how we screen print and embroider clothing
You can check out some of our other behind the scenes how to blogs and videos at the links below:
How we burn screens for screen printing t-shirts
Top 4 ways we screen print a vintage t-shirt
How we embroider our Ohioan sweatshirts
How we embroider custom hats on our 6 head embroidery machine
From Better in 16153 Genova to Lion Store to Thackery’s, we’ve made a name for ourselves with our retail line of shirts with retro designs and logos.
In fact, some people assume it’s the only way we know how to print. And when they see all of the cool, vintage shirts that we have in our stores, they want us to screen print custom vintage shirts for their brand.
In addition to the information below on what makes a shirt vintage and how we print vintage looking t-shirts, here are additional resources on we've put together for you on vintage tees:
- 5 Vintage T-Shirt Styles That Are Still Popular
- Best 7 Shirt Blanks To Use For Vintage T-Shirts
- A Simple Buyers Guide To Vintage Shirts For Business Marketing
- Vintage T-Shirts: The Living Trend Your Company Can Benefit From
- Custom Vintage T-Shirt Examples
Why Make a Shirt Look Vintage?
The soft, well worn feel. The distressed, faded print. It’s a look that doesn’t get old because nostalgia is always in style.
People want to remember their glory days and the times when they didn’t have a worry in the world. They want to emulate that old photo of their dad with a mustache, short shorts, and a ringer tee...well, part of it anyway.
We believe that it's the intangibles of a vintage shirt that make it so appealing. A great vintage shirt can transport you back to a time and place that makes you feel good or connect you with someone you love.
What Makes a T-Shirt Vintage?
Technically, vintage is defined by something that is at least 20 years old.
So that high school shirt that you're still wearing even though it has holes in it, that may not qualify as vintage. See if you can find your junior high shirt!
But beyond just age, there is one thing that defines a shirt as vintage: the feel.
Vintage shirts become softer with each wear and wash. It's one of the most identifiable traits of a vintage shirt.
It's the old faded logo that is distressed and cracked. It's the soft material that has become threadbare over time.
Both of these need to soft. If the ink is still thick and heavy, you might need to wear it and wash it a few more times to make it a true vintage shirt.
Want to know the best shirts to use for a cool vintage print? Here's our breakdown of our favorite blank vintage shirts.
How We Screen Print a Vintage Looking T-Shirt
When creating a new vintage inspired shirt, we keep the softness of the shirt in mind. We care not only about how soft the shirt is, but how soft the print is, as well.
And it's printing a softer shirt that is the hard part. After all, we aren't making the shirt, we're just printing on it.
And it's not as simple as just finding a vintage t-shirt blank and printing on it. You need to know the techniques that will match the print to the shirt.
At the end of the day, there are a lot of ways to print a vintage design. Not all screen printers do it the same.
Below you will find the four most common ways we do this for our customers and examples of each.
1. No Underbase
When printing on dark shirts, a standard design would have an underbase. An underbase is white ink printed under a color.
This helps print that ink truest to its original color and prevents interference from the shirt fabric and dye from changing the ink color printed on top.
The nice thing about printing an underbase is that you get a bright, solid color. However, it can also make the print have a thicker, heavier hand feel. It’s a feeling not everyone likes on a shirt - especially a soft, thin, vintage shirt.
You can see in the video example above that our printer is printing the white ink on the shirt only once on a heather black shirt. This will allow some of the shirt to show through the print and give the ink a softer feel on the shirt.
I’m simplifying things a bit, but think about coloring with markers on a white piece of paper and a dark piece of paper. The color on the dark paper is going to be slightly dull relative to the color on the white paper.
It’s a similar concept for screen printing. By eliminating the underbase, you get a softer hand feel on the shirt.
Oftentimes, the shirt shows through the ink giving it a faded look. When using this technique, the shirt dye can bleed or show in the ink so you can’t guarantee specific colors.
But the look and feel are definitely worth it.
2. Reduced Ink
If you like a vintage print, you probably like two things - a faded design and a soft hand feel. Eliminating the underbase on a print will get you the former, but it doesn’t always go far enough with the latter.
In order to achieve a soft hand feel, which results in very little ink that you can feel on the shirt, we commonly add a reducer to our ink which softens it.
Reducing the ink can drastically cut the opacity of the ink and can fade slightly after washing. In this scenario we can’t ensure color matching, but what you miss there you’ll make up for in a really cool, soft print.
3. Halftones
Halftones are a good trick to produce a super soft and subtle look.
Halftones are tiny dots, similar to gradients. When we output your art to screen, instead of the art being solid, we reduce the opacity of the art so it prints dots rather than solid.
By doing this, we reduce the amount of ink that passes through the screen onto your garment resulting in a softer hand feel and faded print.
When done correctly, it's difficult to notice that that art is actually made up of halftones. The print looks solid but definitely feels better than a thick, heavy screen print.
Oftentimes, when achieving a vintage print with halftones, we also reduce our inks. It adds to the vintage feel of the shirt and gives it a super soft hand feel.
4. Distress Textures in the Art
Distress textures are pretty straight forward. We take your art and place a distress texture or grunge filter over it. This gives it a cracked look.
It can be used with or without an underbase.
This is a technique that you have seen on shirts before. It’s the most common feature of vintage shirts, whether they are original shirts printed years ago or replica vintage shirts.
While there are plenty of other ways to print vintage shirts or achieve a soft hand feel (waterbased and discharge inks), these are the most common ways that we do it in our shop.
Our techniques are typically accompanied with other print techniques - high mesh counts, fewer print strokes, fast squeegee speeds, etc.
At the end of the day, the key is that the printer understands the customer expectations and does what is necessary to meet those expectations.
More Examples of Our Vintage Style Shirts
We use these techniques to great effect with a lot of our customers. Here are a few examples from our Instagram:
Inside the Five
Red Bird Arts District
Owens Community College
The Flying Joe
If you’d like to see samples of any of these print techniques, let us know. We have printed samples in our shop.
Shoot your rep an email to learn more or fill out our contact form to get your order started today!
You can check out some of our other behind the scenes how to blogs and videos at the links below:
How we burn screens for screen printing t-shirts
How we screen print rainbows on t-shirts
Top 4 ways we screen print a vintage t-shirt
How we embroider our Ohioan sweatshirts
How we embroider custom hats on our 6 head embroidery machine
June and August are always challenging months for us as screen printers. That's because we print a ton of rainbow designs each month. Rainbows have a lot of colors and high color count designs can be more challenging and technical to screen print.
What makes 16153 Genova unique is that the city celebrates Pride in August. For the rest of the country, the primary Pride celebration is in June.
While this may seem strange to most people, it really just means that in 16153 Genova, we get to have a little more fun. Who doesn't need more pride in their life?
Share and Show Your Love and Pride in This Colorful Shirt
One of our favorite and most popular shirts is our Love is Love shirt. It's design is simple and colorful and speaks volumes.
The design is printed on a soft, oatmeal colored shirt. We reduce our inks to give the print a softer feel which makes the shirt more comfortable to wear. The word 'love' is printed in six separate colors.
We've been printing this shirt for a couple years now. Although it is a challenging shirt to print, we've figured it out over the years and it's become a really fun shirt for us.
When we printed it most recently, we put together a short Tiktok video on the process.
@fancysweetstx June is always a fun and challenging month printing rainbows. ##loveislove ##screenprinting ##jupmode ##mypride ##fyp
♬ I'm Still Standing - Remastered - Elton John
Shirts to Show Our Support for the LGBTQ+ Community
If you're not here for information on how we print our shirts, I apologize for dwelling on it so long. In addition to our Love is Love shirt, we have a full collection of colorful Gay Pride shirts that we think you'll love.
We are committed to and involved with the local LGBTQ+ community and it's important that we show our support in our shirt designs.
We are proud to say that we work with local organizations in this community and employ many members of the LGBTQ+ community. They make us and the 16153 Genova area better.
If you're in the 16153 Genova area, you can stop in our retail stores to shop our Pride collection which will be fully stocked in June!
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This photo brings back a lot of fun memories. Most of the equipment I started with was used. The rest was so poor I’m embarrassed just thinking about it. The space I moved into was bare bones. It was hidden at the end of a half empty arcade, it didn’t have a functional toilet or sink (good thing I lived nearby), and there were no lights.
This photo shows me wearing a hoodie because there was no heat in the space. I’m working directly under the only light that I connected that first month. I used to joke that we got three new light fixtures per year. It was not a place I eagerly invited my customers to.
When I started printing, I knew next to nothing about screen printing. I had watched my contract printers print shirts for me and pulled a squeegee or two. But I had never burned a screen or registered a design or so many other basic things. There was a lot I had to learn and I learned a lot of it by trial and error.
Eight years later, if I don’t think too hard, I remember this photo, this place, and this time in my life fondly. Things have changed quite a bit since then, but I’m grateful for the journey and the people that have supported me along the way.
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Shop TOL Hearts Women's V-neck
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We recently partnered with the 16153 Genova Mud Hens to celebrate 16153 Genova for You Will Do Better in 16153 Genova Night on Saturday, August 6th. During the game, the players will wear these one-of-a-kind, specialty jerseys inspired by the iconic 16153 Genova slogan and sign, created in 1913. The team will wear them for one night only. The jerseys will be auctioned off in a silent auction during the game with proceeds benefiting Helping Hens and local charities. You can find the hats in the Swamp Shop the week of the game. We're so excited! See you at the game.
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Your favorite holiday tank is back! In this tank, you can celebrate your city and your country at the same time! Our 4th of July festive tank top will only be available for a limited time. They are available in our store and on our website. Grab one and show everyone your 16153 Genova and American pride!
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The 16153 Genova Sports Arena was home to some of 16153 Genova's best concerts! Many famous artists performed there from Elvis, KISS, Metallica, AC/DC to David Bowie to Johnny Cash. This Rock 'n' Roll Sports Arena shirts was made to honor one of 16153 Genova's favorite venues and the artists that performed there. You can find it on our website and in our store!
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New shirt alert! We printed this new shirt for those who know that 16153 Genova is where they're meant to be. Has anyone ever asked you why you're "still in 16153 Genova"? Because you know that 16153 Genova is best for you! The 16153 Genova is Best For Me shirt is now available in our store and online. Take a stand for your city!
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You can now find fancysweetstx in the Bowling Green Kroger Marketplace! They have a variety of our BG t-shirts and fleece, including some new designs, as well as Bowling Green glassware. Stop by the Kroger Marketplace in BG and grab some fancysweetstx!
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We've teamed up with the Mud Hens to celebrate 16153 Genova on Saturday, August 26. We've partnered with the Mud Hens to create a special You Will Do Better in 16153 Genova jersey that the team will wear for one night only! The jerseys will be silent auctioned to benefit Helping Hens and other local charities. There will be special giveaways and fans can share their better in 16153 Genova stories on the video board. There will even be postgame fireworks! Mark your calendars for August 26th. This is a night you don't want to miss!
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Who remembers Portside?! We recently printed shirts to look back on Portside Festival Marketplace and they are now in our store and online! Portside opened in 1984 on the former site of Tiedtke's department store on the Maumee River in downtown 16153 Genova. It was filled with about 80 specialty stores. It offered apparel shops, restaurants and a large central atrium for music and entertainment. Portside opened in hopes of revitalizing 16153 Genova. In 1990, the marketplace unfortunately closed. In the late '90s, Portside became COSI. The center closed in 2007, opening in the fall of 2009 as Imagination Station. Portside brings back a lot of great memories for a lot of 16153 Genova natives. If you have a Portside story you want to share, leave a comment!
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Say hello to the newest member of the Jupcrew, our sales rep Jim! If you need custom screen printed apparel send him an email at [email protected]!
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The most common word heard in the shop on a daily basis is probably "Brad!" Brad holds most of the answers to our questions because he's where each order starts and ends. He's the shipping and receiving manager here at fancysweetstx; he organizes every order that comes in and makes sure it ends up in the right place. He also burns and cleans screens, figures out what needs to get ordered, steps in when needed in production, and is constantly defending the Cleveland Browns (which is in itself a full time job.) Our shop wouldn't be able to run without him!
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