Today’s Topic = T-shirt Teacher

It seems as if the 24 hours of “LOCKDOWN” (previous blog post) extended to 360 hours, as I haven’t ‘blogged’ since the 3^rd of June.

I apologize for that, but if you want me to be honest, my creativity level decreased to a “negative figure”, as a consequence of filling up (… or at least attempting to fill up) my brain with ‘exam contents’.

Apparently, results (of exams, projects, etc.) show that I have a super power which gives me the ability to fail multiple subjects; even those which I often consider as easy.

Nothing I can complain about, because it simply consists of a “cause-effect” situation (for example):

Cause: Study a total of 4 hours for an exam that covers the topics of 4 months.  
Effect: FAIL.

Cause: Watching The Netherlands play football [or in their case not play football, because apparently they also have a super power that gives them the ability to lose every match (lucky them, they still get their 20 million € salaries…)], when I should be studying for an exam which is said to be that 80% of students fail in the first try.  
Effect: FAIL.   

But, no worries. Nothing that can’t be handled!

…I am starting to notice that I’m a little bit ‘off topic’ here, because up till now I’ve told you about everything except what should be “Today’s Topic’.

As I don’t want to bore you, dear reader, with exams and what is for many people “stress-related topics”; today I will share with you one of my ‘secret hobbies’: Making T-shirts.
(It is not about making them, in the sense of the fabric and stuff, but… you’ll see).

By the end of this blog post you will know, at least the basics, of how to make your own t-shirt. Today is your lucky day.    
It may sound difficult, but it’s as easy as… it is for the Dutch team to lose a match! (Ok, sorry Dutch readers, I’ll stop being mean now…):

Step 1 – Blank

Just like with a lot of things, you start with a blank piece of paper in front of you (or a blank screen in case you are a “Photoshoper”). So just draw.

Step 2 – Scan + Retouch

In case you drew up the design, you scan it, pass it to your laptop/computer and make some retouches like color, contrast, light, etc. (the retouch is just if you want to or find it necessary, of course). 

 
Step 3 – Print

For this you need a paper called “transfer paper” and of course a printer. The type of paper you use will depend on the t-shirt’s color, as well as the printer/inks you have.

Step 4 – Magic Machine

You need something to pass the drawing from the transfer paper to your t-shirt, so this is when the ‘magic machine’ (AKA “transfer heat press machine”) does its ‘thing’.

And just as its name “heat press” states, in order to transfer the design into the t-shirt, it basically works by putting a high amount of pressure and heat over the t-shirt.

[Concerning the price of this machine, it is not as expensive as it may look. Last year, it cost me around 3 months of dishwashing (correction: ‘Professional dishwashing’ PLEASE!) in one of Venlo’s restaurant. So it is 100% ‘doable’.

Step 5 – Just ‘peel’ and seal the deal

The last step: You carefully peel the transfer paper and… “Voilà” you got your one of a kind t-shirt! (You can have fun with it).

Have in mind that this is the simple way of making t-shirts and within this way there are many variations-options to choose from. There’s also another way called “screen printing” (if you’re wearing a t-shirt now it is probably made with this process), but it requires much more space/money/tools.
As it usually happens, both ways have their pros, cons and limitations.

This was a brief explanation, so if you are interested any further, you can find every detail online. 

Hopefully you enjoyed this post and learned something new.

Now, it is time for me to stop writing and start being responsible (for real this time!), and give myself a last push for doing everything I have to do during my remaining days in Venlo. 

Hasta la próxima.