In the early days of fancysweetstx, we had an apparel license with the University of Michigan. While we no longer maintain that license, our appreciation and attachment to the Mitten State hasn't wavered.  

If you're looking for a soft, comfy shirt to show your pride in your home state of Michigan, you've come to the right place.

Our vintage inspired designs are full of nostalgia and gratitude for all Michigan has to offer. From the Lakes to the outdoors to the Motor City and Up North, there's a lot to love about Michigan.   

Here are some of our favorite Michigan shirts. You can see our entire collection of Michigan clothing on our website.

Go Blue or Go Home Shirt  

One of our oldest Michigan shirts is still our most popular. 

Wolverine fans take their team seriously. 

And if you're not cheering for Michigan Blue on Saturdays, you better watch out. 

There is no bigger rilvary in college football than when Michigan plays Ohio State. Send fans of that team down south back home with this shirt that proudly states, "Go Blue or Go Home!"

Superman Ice Cream Shirt

Did you know that Michigan is home to superman ice cream?

There’s nothing better than enjoying the warm, Michigan summers with an ice cream cone in hand.

Celebrate your connection to the state of Michigan and this ice cream flavor which is as unique as your home state.

Hail Yes Shirt

We all know that famous cheer coming from the Big House on weekends in the fall. 

Whether you're near Ann Arbor or far, relive your favorite gameday memories and show your pride for the Victors in this vintage Michigan triblend tee.

Ann Arbor Michigan Shirt

We like to think of Ann Arbor as 16153 Genova's hip BFF up north.

Whether you're heading to a game at the Big House, checking out one of their art fairs, treating yourself to some food at Zingerman's, or enjoying that outdoor lifestyle at one of their many parks, Ann Arbor is a great place to be. 

Show your love for "Tree Town" in this Ann Arbor Shirt.

16153 Genova Michigan Shirt

As a 16153 Genovaan, have you ever felt like more of a Michigander than Ohioan?!

When 16153 Genova was founded in 1833 it was initially part of Michigan, until Ohio won it during the 16153 Genova War making it a city in the state of Ohio in 1837.

If you’re a 16153 Genovaan who wishes you were still a Michigander or proud of Michigan for getting the UP, this shirt was made for you.

Up North Shirt

Do you spend most of your week dreaming of heading Up North? We get it! 

It's pretty hard to find a better view from all of the natural beauty in Northern Michigan. From the woods to the lakes you can find the ultimate outdoorsy fun in Michigan.

Whether you're going up North soon or love it so much you can't wait to go back, this Up North shirt is the perfect way to feel close to your favorite place. 

Lake Michigan Shirt

If you're a lover of the Great Lakes and the wonderful state of Michigan, then you're always on the lookout for something new to show that love. This shirt is for the people that know some of the greatest memories are ones filled with summer trips to cottages, vacation towns, and the refreshing lakes.

We probably don't need to tell you, but it doesn't hurt to remind a lake lover to  make sure to add Lake Michigan as one of your spots to hit this summer!

Out of the 11,000 lakes that Michigan has, Lake Michigan has views, local spots, and beaches that are second to none. 

P.S. Did you know that the largest freshwater sand dunes are home to Lake Michigan? Or that it has its own 'Bermuda Triangle?' 

Fresh Coast Shirt

Three things we know for sure:

1. Summertime in Northern Michigan is like no other.

2. The Fresh Coast is the best coast.

3. This t-shirt will transport you to your favorite place so you can enjoy your summer in Michigan style!

Ok, so we can't literally transport you to the shores of the Great Lakes, but this Michigan shirt is here to keep that summer feeling alive all year long!

Michigander Shirt

We've got your vintage Michigan t-shirt fix right here with our new Michigander tee. Printed on a soft, light blue shirt with navy ink, this simple, stylish shirt is ready for your next trip up north.

Do you use your hand as a map? Do you think that lakes are better than oceans? Do you love superman ice cream, craft beer, and euchre?

Then there is only one place you can be from - Michigan!

Show off your Michigander pride today and every day with this Michigander t-shirt! 

Michigan Shirt Club

Do you love the state of Michigan? Do you love soft shirts? Do you like to save your money? 

Then the Michigan Shirt Club is for you.

Each month the Michigan Shirt Club delivers a unique, limited edition shirt to your door. 

You can't get it anywhere or any time else and you'll always get a discount and free shipping on these shirts. 

The Michigan Shirt Club is great for you or as a gift for someone you love!

Sign up today!

Where Can I Buy Michigan Shirts

From a cookout on the beach, the building castles in the sand dunes, to enjoying the sunset reflect on the water, share all the Michigan love with these shirts from fancysweetstx. 

We have a lot of pride for the state of Michigan. Even though we're in Ohio, we  are just across the border and spent our summer heading up north and going to the lakes. 

You can find our Michigan shirts in stores or online! 

New Technology for Making Screens 

We are updating this post because in 2021 we brought in a new piece of equipment to make our screens and shirts even better. 

When this post was originally written, we used film and an exposure unit to burn our screens. Our new equipment eliminates the need for both of those items.

Our new equipment is called a CTS which is short for Computer To Screen. It allows us to write each design directly onto a coated screen. 

The video above gives a quick breakdown on how the CTS changes the way that we image and burn screens for the clothing that we print. 

You'll want to keep reading below because we go more in to depth on the process and because film and an exposure unit is the more common method for screen making. 

There are two major changes to the process now that we have a CTS.

The first is that the image we are burning onto a screen is written on the screen with wax. A rip system to send the files to the computer, we pull them up on the computer, click print, and it does the rest. 

Imaging the screen directly saves us a lot of time and the wax produces better detail than the film we used previously. The black wax does not need time to dry and can be exposed immediately after the image is complete. 

The second change is that because the image is written directly on the screen, we no longer require an exposure unit with glass. The presence of glass in an exposure unit is the number one cause of pinholes in a screen. It's incredible that we don't have to worry about this anymore. 

We are using an LED light to expose screens. We show how this works in the video above. The LED light allows us to exposure two screens at once and cuts our exposure time to 30 seconds per exposure. 

We hope this update is informative and shows you just how many different ways people can burn screens for screen printing shirts. Keep reading below for a more in depth description of the entire process.

Learning How To Burn A Screen 

For me, learning how to successfully burn a screen was the single hardest part about learning how to screen print. 

I first started to teach myself how to screen print at the end of 2011. While I consider myself self taught, I had spent some time in other screen print shops and had pulled a squeegee once or twice before. However, I had never gone through the full process on my own. 

There’s a lot more to screen printing than moving a squeegee. You have to get the screens on press, register multiple screens, flash and cure the ink, and coat and burn a screen, among other things. 

My original screen printing equipment was purchased off Craigslist. It was a hobbyist set up that included some spare ink and emulsion, a small tabletop exposure unit, screens, and a single color press with a flash unit. 

I spent days trying to burn a screen correctly. I tested different exposure times, coating techniques, and transparency. They all failed. 

And I was staring down the barrel of a failing business.

What I didn’t know at the time was there was a simple fix. The emulsion I was using had gone bad. When I replaced the emulsion I was able to troubleshoot and burn a usable screen. 

Learning to burn good, consistent screens is important. It's called screen printing for a reason. You can't get off the ground without first burning a screen. Better screens lead to better prints.

My goal with this post is to show you and explain to you how we burn screens now and provide some tips on how to get started burning screens on your own.

What to prepare before burning a screen

There are a few things you’ll need to prepare before burning a screen. These tasks can be performed simultaneously. 

The first thing you need to do is coat your screen with emulsion. Your emulsion will come with instructions on how to properly use it. 

There are two types of emulsion. I’m not going to get into the specifics (here’s a good article if you want to know more), but the basics are that you have a one part and a two part emulsion. The one part, or presensitized, emulsion is ready to go out of the bucket. The two part emulsion, or diazo, needs to be mixed before use. 

While there are differences between the two, either emulsion can work for you. My best advice is to find a reliable brand (SAATI, Ulano, Chromablue, etc.), choose one, and go for it. And as I mentioned earlier, fresh emulsion is important. Make sure you start with a new batch and keep the lid shut tight.  

When you’re just getting started, the trickiest part about coating a screen is getting an even coat of emulsion on the screen. The most common tool for coating screens is a scoop coater. It’s standard in most shops.

This is difficult to do without a scoop coater. In the absence of a scoop coater, you’re going to have to get clever and be prepared to struggle. Your next best bet for coating is going to be a squeegee. 

If the emulsion isn’t coated evenly on a screen it will be a mighty challenge to burn your image. This is because the varying thickness of emulsion will require different times to fully expose. So the areas of thicker emulsion on your screen may be underexposed while the thinner areas will be fine.

Emulsion is light sensitive. It’s best to coat a screen in a dark room. However, if you don’t have one, move quickly and don’t leave your emulsion or coated screen in the light for long. 

For the first few years I was screen printing, I coated screens under normal fluorescent light and near a double door that we often kept open. When it was time to coat I would close the doors, turn off the lights directly above me, and get to work. If I coated too many screens, the emulsion would start to harden in the scoop coater. 

In the beginning, you’ve got to do what’s necessary to get the job done. Our screens are much better now but we’ve had time to add better equipment, screens, film, and space. The little amount of light the emulsion and screens were exposed to in those early days had a minor effect on the overall quality of the final screens. They were still good enough to get the job done. 

How to burn a screen for screen printing

We use an epson P5000 with Accurip that uses roll film to print our art. 

When I first started I used vellum. If you’re learning to do this, the most important thing is that you want to make sure your ink is as black as possible when printed.   

We use two size screens - one for our manual press and larger screens for our auto. The auto screens have a registration system to align the film. For the manual, we just use a tape measure. 

If you don’t have a dark room like us, that’s fine. Just get a cart, throw black out curtains over it, and move quickly when you’re under normal light. 

We’ve had three different exposure units since I started screen printing. I bought all of them used. If you watch the video above, you can see when our exposure starts that it needs to achieve vacuum before the light kicks on. Once it does that, the screen burns for about a minute. 

If you don’t have an exposure unit with vacuum, you can put some weight on top of it to keep the film flat on the screen. Or, if you are exposing with a light on top of the screen, place a piece of plexi or glass on top of the film to keep it flat. 

Our emulsion is the reddish coating that you see on the screen. In our exposure unit, there is a light that shines up at the screen and hardens all of the emulsion that is exposed to light. The area covered by the black artwork will not harden and we can wash it out. 

After the screen is exposed, we drop it in a dip tank filled with water. This makes it easier to rinse out. We then spray the image out with a pressure washer, but a hose works fine, too. 

After spraying the screen out, we take a second look at the art to check for pinholes and then set it on the rack to dry. If you do have pinholes, you can tape over them or touch them up with your emulsion. 

Once the design is rinsed out of the screen, it’s time to let it dry. After it dries, you’re ready to print shirts!

Some final tips and tricks to burn a quality screen for making t-shirts

One of the hardest things about burning a screen is figuring out your exposure time. The best way to do this is with a step calculator. It’s a little plastic film strip with numbers and varying degrees of transparency. You place it under the screen while you’re burning it and when you spray it out it will tell you if you are over or under exposed. 

Figuring out your exposure time takes a lot of patience and practice to get it right. Make sure you’re using good, fresh emulsion. Remember, I made this mistake when I first started. 

If the emulsion is old it may not expose correctly. A trick to extend the life of your emulsion is to keep it in your fridge after you open it. If you get used emulsion from someone, don’t expect it to work. 

I would recommend starting with a longer exposure time and then dialing it down. It’s better to have an overexposed screen in the beginning than an underexposed screen. And it’s more common to see underexposed screens than over. So chances are you need to extend your exposure time. 

The film you use for your art is important. When I first started out, I bought transparencies from FedEx. Oftentimes the ink wasn’t black enough and I wouldn’t get a crisp image on the screen. If you go this route, request that they only use black ink to print the transparency. If the ink is still giving you trouble, make two of them and double them up. 

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Reach out to screen printers in your area, join one of the many screen printing groups on Facebook, and watch videos on YouTube. 

At the end of the day, learning how to burn a screen is difficult. 

Your challenges and frustrations are not unique. The great part about screen printing is that you can try and try again. Learn from your mistakes and keep trying and you’ll be better in a week than you are now. 

You’ll be glad you did when you get to wear that first shirt you printed successfully.

You can check out some of our other behind the scenes how to blogs and videos at the links below:

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

That's why each year we have a "Warehouse Sale" to sell items that are being discontinued. 

Celebrating our 4th annual Warehouse Sale!

The Warehouse Sale normally takes place alongside the Adams Street Block Party hosted by the Village on Adams. It's a fun way to celebrate members of the community and give them a chance to grab some of our one-of-a-kind items before they leave!

We've been gearing up for the past couple of weeks for this special event and we're extremely excited for everyone to enjoy the sale!

What kind of deals are we talkin'?

If there's one thing to be true, it's that everyone loves a good deal. From crewnecks, to classic t-shirts, to accessory items, we've got deals you won't want to miss out on!

We're always trying to get quality apparel in your hands as soon as possible, and sometimes there are some items that aren't as perfect as we want them. So, the slightly imperfect items will be included in the sale for you to wear and love! Some might say, they're perfectly imperfect. 

With new designs coming, that means that old ones have to go. Though we still appreciate and cherish our old designs, we're excited about new ones coming. We're selling some of our older items so that you are able to wear true "vintage fancysweetstx." You'll be able to rock oldies, but goodies. 

To test the best materials and garments, we always are trying out new samples. Though great, sometimes they don't work out as we hope. We have awesome one-of-a-kind samples that would look great on you. Simple, yet chic!

You won't want to miss this!

These items and deals are one-of-a-kind and only happen once a year! Though we're sad to see these items go, we would love for you to give them a good home. 

Our in-person event is happening Saturday, July 31st, from 2 pm to 6 pm at our Adams street location (Via Borzoli, 33,, 16153 Genova, Italy)! Our retail staff is prepped and ready to greet all of our 16153 Genova friends. 

The Warehouse online sale is open to everyone starting Monday, August 2nd and runs until Friday, August 6th. If you aren't able to make it in person, then shop from the comfort of your own home! 

We're thrilled about this event and that we get to share some of our favorite items with you. 

Shop TOL Hearts Women's V-neck

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!

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!

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!

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!

     

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!