The Making of a Mr P's Tee

Before we started this little business, I had not given much thought to everything that goes into making a t-shirt. Let me tell you, it is quite the process!! I wanted to show you guys how it works...
 So, after we figure out what we want to create, I sit down and start drawing. It doesn't necessarily come out like I want the first go around. Let me tell ya, when I first drew the hippo design, it looked like a certain male body part...... I never even "saw" it until a friend pointed it out (thanks Z) !!  Below is NOT the drawing I did, but this hippo is in the same position...

hahahahah  Def not what we want for a kids shirt!!!!
  Moving on.... The drawing is always done in pen and ink..I love to use extra fine sharpies.

Then, the drawing is taken to Tommy's Tees over in Ruston. My sister works over there, so many times, she delivers for me.

 
I always try to email Lindsey ahead of time to tell her how many shirts, # of colors, etc that we will be needing so we can get on their schedule. Lindsey is the girl who organizes everything for us.

Next, the drawing is given to their graphic designer Jeff. Hey Jeff!

He scans in the drawing and adds color for me to see. Sometimes he adds the fonts too.

On the Hippo design, he showed me different color combinations. The font this time was all hand drawn. Once the design is finalized, he prints it out on a vellum type sheet of paper. The hippo was printed twice. Once for the white ink and once for the purple.

Now its put in this big machine that burns it onto a screen.

BTW- Danny is the guy who runs the back and showed me how this all works.

Next, they kind-of hose the screen off and POOF, the image appears (Danny-please excuse my very very elementary way of describing this whole process!)

Then the shirts are put on this board. (Check out Matt's FRO-WOW!!!)

 Here is the purple ink we picked...

Then the colors are wiped on the screens. They normally do lightest to darkest. So here is the white

And then, here is the purple..

This kind of reminded me of wind shield wipers.

Once these colors are all done, they shirts go through this heating machine that seals the colors in. They literally come down a conveyor belt.

 All done!!! Ready for me to pick up, tag and sell. Wow~~ the day in the life of a Mr P's Tee.

Thanks to Tommy's Tees in Ruston for letting me photograph the whole process.

www.mrpstees.bigcartel.com