DIY Screen Printing

I wanted all the kids to wear a white tshirt for Michael's Messy Party so we could really see the messiness! However I didn't like them completely plain white. Here's where the do it yourself screen printing comes in. I googled how to make your own silk screen and found a lot of info. Some were much more complicated than others. I didn't want to put a lot of money in materials. I was trying to go cheap since I had quite a few shirts to do after all! 

I started picking up solid white tshirts at goodwill and many were new while some were used. Most I only spent a dollar on. 

I picked up some screen print paint at Hobby Lobby. Cost was about 2.99 so not bad. 

Here are the steps I took to screen the shirts at home:

First print out what you want to screen. Pick a font that will be simple to cut out with an exacto knife. 

Cut out the letters with an exacto knife. This takes some time. I usually put the paper on a magazine while I cut.  It'll look like this when it's all done. 

Next you need a curtain sheer to use as your screen. I got a pretty big one for two bucks at Goodwill. 

Take an embroidery hoop and fit it with a piece of the sheer. Pull it nice and taut. 

Put something inside the tshirt to keep the paint from bleeding thru. I had an old piece of foam board. Hobby Lobby sells cardboard tshirt forms for this purpose but they're not neccessary. 

Next place the paper with your image on the shirt where you want it. 

Then place the screen (emb hoop) over the paper. It should be upside down so that the screen is directly on the shirt. 

 

I don't have a pic of this but here is where you'd squeeze some paint across the top of your image. Then using a squeegee you drag it down until the image is sufficiently covered. 

Then just lift off the hoop. The paper just stays stuck to the hoop which is good. Easy to use on the next shirt. 

This was so easy and FUN to do! I ended up doing the word STAFF on the back for my helpers' shirts then did DAD and MOM on Paul's and my shirts. I put 7 on the 7th on the back of Michaels shirt. The shirts were great for the party. I had to go cheap so used mostly thin undershirts but if I were to make them for my kids or for our family I would buy 'real' tshirts. I would make the words bigger too but I really wanted a lot of white so it was ok. 

There are sooooo many possibilities now that I know how to do this and it's so simple. Try it! It's really neat!