T-Shirt Printing St. Clair County, IL
T-Shirt Printing St. Clair County, IL. When you have a group trip, work event, or fundraising endeavor to organize, custom screen printed t-shirts are a fun and effective tool. St. Clair County, IL t-shirt printing is meant for everything from marketing a brand to enhancing team-building efforts to having some fun with a life event. When it comes to t-shirt printing, the options are virtually limitless. To get the best possible design and print, you need a reliable t-shirt printing shop with expert printers and designers who serve the St. Clair County, IL area. You get that and more with STL Shirt Co.
STL Shirt Co. is the leading screen printing shop serving the St. Clair County, IL area. For more than 45 years, we have been the community leader for all your screen printing and embroidery needs. Enjoy the St. Clair County, IL t-shirt printing experience with STL Shirt Co. To place your order or to speak to us about our capabilities, call us at 636-926-2777 or message us at 636-299-0162 today.
The T-Shirt Printing Process
STEP ONE – Make your order.
You know you want some t-shirt printing done for your upcoming occassion, school group, sports team, or some other use. You contact your shop to place the order and that is where the St. Clair County, IL t-shirt printing journey begins. When you place your shirt order, you will have to choose and specify the:
- What color, brand, style, and material the shirts will be
- Ink colors or special effects
- The design you want printed
“But I’m not a graphic designer,” you exclaim. Not to worry! STL Shirt Co. can give you counsel and assurance during every step of the t-shirt printing process. Use our professional printers and designers. Need help designing a logo that perfectly captures your vision? You can rely on our professional design team. We can also help you select the right shirt and ink colors.
STEP TWO – We create the screen
After you have created your design, we go about preparing the screen that will be used to get your design printed on your shirts. The design is first printed on a transparent sheet of film. Depending on the specifics of your order, our t-shirt printing staff will select the best mesh screen to use in printing your shirts. The screen is coated with a substance called emulsion, which is sensitive to light. That film we printed your design on is placed on the screen and we expose the screen to light. The design on the film blocks the light from reaching the coated screen in the shape of your design, but the rest of the emulsion hardens in the light. This creates the stencil.
If you want a design using multiple colors, we repeat the process above, making a screen for each color in the design.
STEP THREE – We print.
Now we are ready for the ink. Screen printing such as t-shirt printing usually uses a special ink called plastisol. You might have noticed that the prints on shirts are slightly textured, a little rubbery, but still smooth and flexible. That’s plastisol for you. Plastisol works well for screen printing because it withstands washes, moves with the fabric material of your shirt, and shows up vibrantly on any color t-shirt.
Next, we mount the prepared screens to a printing press, stretching each shirt on a plate below. We are very careful to line everything up precisely so to make sure the design is printed in the right position on your t-shirt. We apply ink on top of the screen and pass a squeegee from end to end of the screen to apply and press the ink onto the shirt. We repeat this for every single t-shirt we print. For designs with several colors, we repeat it for each color on every shirt. It takes skill to get the ink precisely so it looks bright and retains the sharp lines from your original design. Lucky for you, our t-shirt printing team has mad skills.
STEP FOUR – The ink cures.
You can now see the design on your shirts! But they aren’t ready to go yet. After the ink is applied, the ink has to cure. In other words, we have to turn the liquid ink into a solid that will stay in place on your t-shirts. To make this happen we have to apply heat to the ink. It takes research and trial and error to perfect the curing process. It is possible to damage the shirt or the print with temperatures that are too high. You can rest assured that we have the curing process figured out, so you know your prints will turn out great.
STEP FIVE – You get your shirts!
After the ink is cured, it means that your t-shirts are officially printed! Next, we fold the shirts up neatly and hand the finished product off to you. We will package them up and have your shirts or other printed items ready in only a handful of days. If you need it, ask us about shipping your order to you. And if you are in a jam and need your t-shirts ready in a week or less, use our rush printing services.
T-Shirt Printing Orders
If you ask us, [t-shirt printing is a magical, beautiful thing. We are passionate about screen printing and aren’t ashamed to admit it. Now that we’ve gotten you thoroughly excited about the idea of screen printing t-shirt, you are probably eager to place an order. If you like the idea of t-shirt printing but don’t have a specific need for it, keep in mind the following reasons and occasions for which t-shirt printing is perfect.
We do St. Clair County, IL t-shirt printing for…
- Athletic teams
- Sports fans
- School groups and organizations
- Fundraising
- Volunteers
- Bachelor & bachelorette parties
- Corporate events
- Class reunions
- Family vacations
- Company picnics
- Birthdays
- Clubs
- Non profit and small business merchandise
- Employee uniforms
- Union events and organizations
The list goes on! There are a million different occasions that t-shirt printing and other screen printing can make even better. You would be hard-pressed to come up with a reason that we haven’t printed shirts. Whatever the reason you need St. Clair County, IL t-shirt printing services, we are here for you.
Choosing a Partner for St. Clair County, IL T-Shirt Printing
Screen printing custom t-shirts are fun, effective, and personalized. However, not all t-shirt printing is the same. When you are looking for printed apparel or any screen printed items, the difference between what an established and respected printing shop can do and what school children ironing on decals in their basement can do is immense. We are rooting for aspiring garment decorators and certainly have nothing against printing out of the basement (many great screen printing shops have started out this way!). Still, you will notice a definite disparity in the quality, customer service, and abilities you have access to when you choose an established and skilled t-shirt printing company for the St. Clair County, IL area like STL Shirt Co.
The cherry on top of it all is that we are a union screen printing shop. Going to a union shop for your St. Clair County, IL t-shirt printing gives you access to workers who have trained thoroughly and have demonstrated their talent in what they do. On top of that, shopping at a union shop for anything, including t-shirt printing, allows you to endorse fair working conditions and support the local and US economy. For your next St. Clair County, IL t-shirt printing order, consider choosing a union print shop.
Screen Printing Services
Embroidery
Basic Polo
With Embroidery
STL Shirt Co.: A Top T-Shirt Printing Company for St. Clair County, IL
At STL Shirt Co., we are all about t-shirt printing. You may think us a bit biased, but the reality is that screen printing on t-shirts, hoodies, and other clothing is an excellent and powerful method for creating quality custom apparel for your next event. Whatever the reason, whether you have a school sports team in need of cotton jerseys for the upcoming season or you have a last-minute bachelorette party to plan, you can count on STL Shirt Co.’s t-shirt printing services. You deserve and expect top quality and great customer service when you order t-shirts. With STL Shirt Co., that is what you get.
We have been performing quality t-shirt printing and other screen printing services for people in the St. Clair County, IL area and beyond for close to 50 years. With a staff of union-member screen printing experts, a quick turnaround time, and professional design services, our t-shirt printing services are the best around. Any time you need t-shirt printing in St. Clair County, IL, STL Shirt Co. will deliver. Call us today at 636-926-2777, text us at 636-299-0162, or request a quote online to place your t-shirt printing order today.