Halloween is less than a week away…which gives your Fraternity or Sorority a perfect opportunity to host a Halloween event and boost your recognition on campus. What better way to promote your chapter events than with a custom T-shirt!
I know you may be thinking, “But you just said…Halloween is less than one week away! We have no time…or budget!”
If you ordered custom T’s for your chapter and rush order them for this weekend (if that’s even possible), it would exhaust your entire budget! Not to mention, you’ll get nickel & dimed for each additional color, graphic, size, etc. So, depending on the complexity of your design, it can cost you upwards of $30/shirt….and that price is sure to give your treasurer the chills!
Fortunately, with a little creativity, some DIY attitude and a few household products, you can make awesome custom T’s for a fraction of the cost! How?! The wonderful invention of Heat Transfer Printing (aka iron-on printing)! It may not look as professional as screen printing, but heat transfer can serve as a cheap way to print very colorful, fully custom T’s when you’re short on time and money.
Heat transfer printing is simple and can be done with some common household items:
- Blank t-shirts (Gildan, Fruit of the Loom, Anvil, Hanes, and Jerzees)
- Awesome design (you can have multiple designs for Execs, Actives, Pledges, PNMs, etc)
- Computer with basic graphics program
- Printer (standard inkjet)
- Heat transfer paper
- Iron or heat press
Ok ok…so you have your shirts, design, paper & iron…Now we’re ready to rock! Depending on how custom you’d like to make each Tshirt (you can design individual shirts for each of your brothers or sisters), your first shirt can be done in minutes…here’s how:
Step 1: Flip your design horizontally to make a mirror image with the software of your choice
Step 2: Print the design onto the heat transfer paper (just like you’d print anything)
Step 3: Trim graphic so only the printed portion is on the heat transfer paper/film
Step 4: Place trimmed paper & film face down on the shirt
Step 5: Apply heat using iron/heat press to seal the image on the shirt
Step 6: Smile! You just made your first shirt!
Step 7: Repeat!
So that’s a basic DIY lesson on how to make custom T-shirts for your Fraternity or Sorority event this Halloween. Don’t miss the opportunity to make this the most memorable Halloween ever (until next year)! Shoot over to our friends at Shirts In Bulk for a more detailed breakdown of the supplies & directions to make awesome T-shirts for your chapter.
You can even create a campus company around this idea and print custom T-shirts around popular campus events:
- Is your rival football team playing at home this weekend?
- Make some kickass shirts cheering on your alma mater!
- Finals/Midterms coming up?
- Make some funny “Study-Buddy” T-shirts & sell them at the Library!
- Big Intramural game coming up?
- Intimidate the other team with custom shirts touting your kickball skills!
- When is parents weekend?
- Capitalize on Parent/Child love & print some fun Mother/Son or Father/Daughter shirts!
You get the picture…the possibilities for Heat Transfer Shirts are endless – So get some shirts & start printing today! What T-shirts have you made for your Fraternity or Sorority? What about for your school? Leave your best design ideas in the comments below:
One of the things you want to take into consideration especially when you are making custom t-shirts is what kind of shirt you are using. Not only do you want to make sure that the t-shirt is comfortable to wear but also some kinds of shirts respond differently to the various printing methods.
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