I need help from all you artistic types out there!

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Hey guys!
Lemmie tell you the situation: I have a vintage T-shirt from the late 40's, that I've had for a few years now. It's SUPER collectible. The great cartoon on it is of a pin-up girl on the beach and a neanderthal guy ogling her. Needless to say, this shirt has never fit me.
Here's the question: how could I copy the picture and get it onto a bigger t-shirt. I don't wanna damage the original shirt. Could it be scanned and turned into a silkscreen? I'm not up on this sort of thing guys!! HELP!!
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[Daniel Riser]

The safest thing to do is buy, or rent a high megapixel (5 or more) digital camera. Place a smooth wood cutting board inside the shirt and the lay the shirt flat on the cutting board... gently to protect the image.

Make sure there are no wrinkles,

Also set your exposure so it doesn't blow out (white out) any sections of the shadowless image.

It is important to note that you should keep your camera on "high resolution" for the best printing.

Then simply put your image on CD and take it to a screener or to an online business that specializes in shirt screening. (in that case you can just email a high resolution version of your picture.)

Hope this helps. This of course isn't the only way to do it, but, in my opinion, it is the safest.

 

[LaMedicine]

Please take into consideration I'm no pro, and evidently, there're many out there who are, so what I did was just for fun, but this is what I did once with some illustrations in books that I wanted to make into a T shirt.

The smaller ones, I scanned in, the larger ones, I took pictures of with my digital camera(5MG), and uploaded them into my PC. Then, I went to a store loaded with PC goods, hunted up some packs of iron-print paper -- paper that transfer the ink-jet prints onto cloth with hot irons-- printed them out onto these papers, and went to work with my iron. One thing to keep in mind with this is that you have to print out a mirror image in order to get the results right. This you can do with either making a mirror image with a photo processing software, or maybe your printer has an automatic function that makes mirror images--mine does-- use that.
Or, if you have any shops that make team T shirts and things like that close to you, you could take the data to them, and have them make the prints.

I suppose pros know better, though.
Just my blundering input.

 

[Daniel Riser]

Also, depending on how strong of light is needed. You may want to get a polarizer filter for the camera to avoid glare.

 

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Thanks for the quick responses! How about this: what if I made color copy of the picture at Kinkos (or the like), and bring THAT color pic to a silk screener.
The crispness of the pic isn't crucial, since I'd like the new shirt to have a vintage-y look. Although I have made color copies at Kinkos in the past and they came out perfect.
What do you guys think?

 

[MudInYerEye]

Keep your eye out on eBay for vintage undershirts to print the image on, I see 'em pretty often. However you manage to do this, I'm interested in having one of these shirts myself. I'm sure other cruder types like myself would be too. Please keep us abreast of any further development.

 

[The Wolf]

scanner is my opinion

If the picture fits a scanner, I would go with that. Have it scanned by a friend or at a Kinko's and put on a disc. When it is scanned you can see if the colors and picture came out right before it is saved to disk. Then you can further manipulate the picture with Microsoft Photo Editor or other such program.
You could either print a transfer yourself at home or take the disk to T-shirt shop.

For whatever it's worth,
The Wolf

 

[Absinthe_1900]

You might check with a reprographic shop, I had some large sized 1940's blueprints scanned and put on a CD rom.

A shop equiped to scan large drawings should have a larger sized scanner.

 

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Actually, if the place that potentially does the shirts requires a minimum order, I'll certainly let you guys know about it. I may sell a couple on Ebay as well, since the original shirts go for about $200. I only paid $100 for mine (only!).

 

[Kay O'Hara]

The safest thing to do is buy, or rent a high megapixel (5 or more) digital camera. Place a smooth wood cutting board inside the shirt and the lay the shirt flat on the cutting board... gently to protect the image.

Make sure there are no wrinkles,

Also set your exposure so it doesn't blow out (white out) any sections of the shadowless image.

It is important to note that you should keep your camera on "high resolution" for the best printing.

Then simply put your image on CD and take it to a screener or to an online business that specializes in shirt screening. (in that case you can just email a high resolution version of your picture.)

Hope this helps. This of course isn't the only way to do it, but, in my opinion, it is the safest.

Excellent advice Daniel..... and I would add that the shirt (and image) should be shot in natural daylight..... turn your camera's setting to Manual, which will stop the flash from firing. If the camera has the capability.... check the light metering within the camera and set accordingly. Also, if the camera is capable of taking shots in *RAW* mode, excellent. This will give you the truest-to-form quality on your final image.

Best of success with the new (old) shirt!

Kay

 

[Lauren]

And don't forget to show us a pic when you get the image

 

[Mr. Sable]

As the artist in a t-shirt shop, I can say that I don't like getting photos of prints at all - that's as good as a napkin scribble usually. A scan would be better. Even if it's in two parts/files, then the artist can splice it together and get a better representation of it. If you could put a stiff piece of cardboard inside the shirt before you scan it (and minimize wrinkles and stretching/distortion) that woudl work best.

Them's my two cents, being in the biz and all.

 

[swinggal]

As a designer I would advise that you scan the tranfer. Taking picture is never quite as good. Take it to a good print shop and get a transfer made. T-shirt companies generally won't print small runs cheaply.

 

[Dr. Shocker]

before you get this involved shoot a picd post it here.....lets see if any of us have seen the image around someone may have gone through the work for you.......otherwise I would say depending on the exact style scan it and redraw it in free hand or illistrator to get the highest quiality possible then take it to a silk screener or t-shirt shop

 

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I can't post a pic now, but if any of you vintage collectors have seen late 40's tees or short sleeve sweaters with painted pictures, then this is the same type of thing. I've seen another one from what has to be the same artist with a pin-up girl and a leering wolf with his tounge hanging out. That one is crazy-expensive!
There's t-shirt shop right down my block, so I'm gonna stop in and ask a bunch of questions. I'll keep you guys posted and thanks for all the advice!
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UPDATE!

Well, I just back from the local T-shirt shop. What a bunch of cool people! I was informed that my t-shirt was actually hand painted! The shop has a process where they can take the image and put it directly onto the shirt, or as they said "into" the shirt.They promise it will look virtually identical to the original shirt. But here's the catch: there was NO minimum order, so I could get as few as I wanted, but with no discounts at all. I ordered 4 shirts at $25 a piece. I'm gonna keep one for me (duh), and put the other 3 on Ebay (I'll post the link when I do), just to make my $$ back. Then, if you guys like what you see, I'll sell them to you at $25 each!
Thanks again for all of your advice!!
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[MudInYerEye]

FT,
I'm in the city too. Which printer are you using?

 

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I'm not in the city, but in lovely Rockland County, about 18 miles from Manhattan!
Country boy,
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