# My first 2 color vinyl shirt



## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

I finally got the opportunity to create a 2-color shirt with vinyl today.

The fire department wanted to see the quality of my work for their tees, with the possibility of having many repeat orders. Apparently they're tough on their tees and wear them out quickly. 

Anyhow, I still have some thermoflex plus laying around and luckily it was in the colors they needed....white and red.

I didn't take photos unfortunately, but the tees turned out GREAT! I was so proud of me on this one. I figured on ruining one shirt at least, but I got it on the first try. 

The shirts were navy blue, then white vinyl with red on top. Pretty slick stuff!!!!


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## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

Way to go Bill I bet the colors really popped with that blue shirt!!!!


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

They did, I was really impressed overall. I was just glad I had enough scraps laying around in the right colors to get the samples done. LOL


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

Congrats! 

So...you getting an order out of it?


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## mrteak (Oct 19, 2007)

those colors do look great, i work for the fd and a started doing some tees for myself and now i do anywhere from 15-30 tees a week, at a meeting one night i sold 35 tees , i just take the sample shirts and i take the orders and have it to them in 1-2 days, i lot of guys like how nice clean and bright they look compared to screen printed shirts, well good luck and prepare to be busy


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## plan b (Feb 21, 2007)

Oh yes Bill the boys in any FD are very loyal once you do good business with them, in my younger days I catered food to a local FD and they would call me every time the word spread needless to say it was the better part of my business.

R.


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

I'm hoping to know about the order after today. A friend who works there got me the opportunity to quote it, and I always like to give a sample whenever possible.

If it pans out, I'm hoping this will be the boost I needed to get everything rolling in the right direction. 

I'm also very loyal to my customers. I try to take care of those who take care of me.  They'll be getting a few freebies along the way if I get the job.


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

I hope you get it, Bill!


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

I was just "volunteered" to make a shirt for my Dad's friends' bowling team. 

They just want an orange tee with their team name on the back, that was all the info I was given. From there I was told to just "come up with something". LOL I love that kind of work.

SO....I say all that to get to my point. I'm doing White pins being busted in pieces with the team name in Neon Pink and using that same pink to put the stripes on the neck of the pins. I'm going out to get the shirt later today and I WILL take photos of that one! In fact, I won't even fire up the heat press until the camera is within my reach.

I'm starting to really dig this 2-color work.


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## wildpat (Feb 5, 2008)

Bill, if you get that order to do more shirts, take a few pictures I for one would like to see the finished product, it sounds like something that might be a pretty easy sell to any local fire Department-Pat


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## Robin (Aug 28, 2006)

Great Going!!


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

Ok, here's the bowling tee I did for a friend.

The picture isn't the greatest, but it's a picture! LOL

The colors definitely pop more than the photo shows here. Again, super easy to do and I had a lot of fun doing it.


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## midnight (Jul 21, 2007)

So how do you do 2 color? Also I can't get my US Cutter to cut graphics. Any ideas. I don't have Illustrator. I tried to use Clipart "Vinyl ready" EPS but it would not recognize it. I've been trying to get help all day. Anyone have advice.


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

It's a matter of doing one color then layering your next color on top. 

Your USCutter should have come with software for cutting, mine has Signblazer Elements. When I open that program, I import my image, then change it to monochrome, and then vectorize it. Cuts just fine from there.

You may not be converting the image to monochrome and vectorizing it, I know I wasn't when I first got mine.


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## midnight (Jul 21, 2007)

I'm not...How???


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

After you import your bitmap image, click to select it. Then go to your IMAGE menu, select MODE then MONOCHROME - 1 bit, then click on OK. You may have to adjust the slider a little to get a cleaner image, but that's a trial and error thing.

After this, go back to the IMAGE menu, and click on Vectorise and then OK. Your image should turn blue. Now, click on your Cutter button, and see if it shows up for you that way.


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## midnight (Jul 21, 2007)

BillM75, I can't even import anything. I click import and it only gives me 1 file that doesn't even open. What am I doing wrong?


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## midnight (Jul 21, 2007)

Bill, poultry strangler is hysterical! I'm signing off for the night but will check back in the AM. If you could further advise on why I can't get to my files to import i'd appreciate it. Then I'll try the route u suggested. Sounds good. I click import and it just doesn't give me access to my documents just pictures and not but 1 of them...
I really don't know.

Wanna scream!


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

can you possibly send me one of your images to try? Maybe it's a bad installation of Sign Blazer. Hard to say without seeing the file.

And no, you won't see any documents through the software, unless you click on "show ALL file types" which wouldn't do you any good anyways. LOL

I know that I sometimes have problems with certain eps and ai images, but not too often. And when it DOES happen, I usually can open them in either photoshop or inkscape, convert them to another file type and THEN open in Sign Blazer.


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## Chani (Jun 18, 2007)

Hi Bill, from what I can gather, Midnight downloaded a vinyl-ready vector file.

Do you know if Signblazer will import EPS files? That's where the problem is here. 

Thanks!


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

Chani said:


> Hi Bill, from what I can gather, Midnight downloaded a vinyl-ready vector file.
> 
> Do you know if Signblazer will import EPS files? That's where the problem is here.
> 
> Thanks!


 
First of all, sorry for the late reply.

I'm not a graphics guru, and only recently started working in vectors, so forgive me for any ignorance here. It's been my experience that Signblazer will import SOME EPS files, but not all, and I can't figure out what the hold up is.

HOWEVER, I have since downloaded Inkscape, where I'll import all files first, then save again as a new EPS file, and they've been working just fine that way. It's an extra step, but Inkscape is free and easy to learn for simple tasks like this one.

Give it a shot!


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

Ok folks, here's the fire dept. tee that I did. Ignore the mess behind the shirt in the image, the office is a wreck! LOL

I just redid this shirt with larger text on the back side per the customer's request. I think it turned out really nice.

I ordered in some vinyl from Roger (plan b) at Heat Press Vinyl and I have to say that it is the smoothest weeding vinyl I've used to date. It presses great, cuts nice and has a really good feel to it. You can tell it's vinyl when it's on the shirt, but honestly, it doesn't feel really heavy either.

If you guys need vinyl, I'd suggest giving this stuff a try, so far I haven't been disappointed whatsoever!


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## wildpat (Feb 5, 2008)

Bill, Thanks for the pix, They look like they really came out nice.-Pat


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## martinwoods (Jul 20, 2006)

I ordered in some vinyl from Roger (plan b) at Heat Press Vinyl and I have to say that it is the smoothest weeding vinyl I've used to date. It presses great, cuts nice and has a really good feel to it. You can tell it's vinyl when it's on the shirt, but honestly, it doesn't feel really heavy either.

If you guys need vinyl, I'd suggest giving this stuff a try, so far I haven't been disappointed whatsoever![/quote]

Have you tried washing and drying yet??

Just curious how it looks after a few washes. I got some from sign warehouse and it felt really good but the customer I gave it to to test called to say it was all cracked after he dried it.
Trying to find some good heat vinyl that will last, so I am wanting feedback.

Thanks as always

everyone on here is so much help


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## billm75 (Feb 15, 2007)

I haven't washed THIS particular garment. I have, however, washed some other garments made with this vinyl and it seems to hold up great. Colors are still vibrant, the feel is still the same and overall the tee looks brand new still.

I use 50/50 Jerzees tees most of the time and have YET to have one peel back off or degrade in quality.


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## BeaconDanRamm (Mar 15, 2008)

Bill, 

Congrats on the shirts. I'm a huge fan of the T-Flex Plus myself. Not just for work purposes, but a bunch of buddies of mine do some pro wrestling shows once every 6 months for fundraisers...yeah we never grow old! I make up the shirts and gear with logos using TFlex plus..pretty durable stuff to use! Good work!


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