T-Shirts

There are many creative ways to make SudoRoom t-shirts.

Designs

"Forking" the SudoRoom cube and everyone creating their own design is pretty cool. It reflects the decentralized nature of SudoRoom.

Methods to the Madness

Stencils

Stencils are the quickest, cheapest option. We can also stencil on used t-shirts as well as dresses, monitors, etc. We are planning on having a SudoRoom t-shirt party sometime in january 2014.

Stencils for upcoming sudoroom t-shirts

Advantages

• Fast. The longest part of the process is designing and cutting the stencil- once that's done it takes about a minute to paint a shirt then however long it takes the paint to dry.
• Clean, assuming you use gloves and lay everything out on a piece of cardboard.
• Minimal investment. I found all of the shirts I've been using in free boxes and there's usually a can of spray paint laying around if you know where to look...thus bringing my total cost for this particular venture to exactly zip, other than time.

Disadvantages

• Must be done outdoors. However, if we acquired a ventilation hood and/or an airbrush setup this could be an indoor activity.
• Results vary. Such is the nature of handmade goods.
• For me, light spray paint on dark shirts has always resulted in an illegible blob. My friend recently stenciled some black shirts with white housepaint, and despite my initial skepticism they turned out awesome...so maybe there will be some black sudo shirts after all.

Tips

• Things go better if the stencil and the surface you are painting lay flat against each other.
• Make sure there's at least 6" from the edge of the image and the edge of the stencil. This will cut down on overspray.
• Any dark paint on light fabric will yield fairly consistent results as long as you use light coats and keep the can 8" from the shirt.
• Not as durable as a screenprint, but the image should last for at least a year with normal care. Maybe longer if you handwash/ hang dry it inside out.

On-Demand T-shirts

On Demand is available at various private companies.

Here is one. I'm testing these designs. They're good for test runs, trying out new color designs quickly, etc.

http://www.zazzle.com/sudoroom

Advantages

• Fast, no BS
• Clean
• They charge pretty much cost to make the shirts and have great styles

Disadvantages

• Expensive in Bulk
• models definitely don't necessarily match the spirit of SudoRoom, but they're not offensive. i think women at sudoroom have body fat.
• It could be argued that Zazzle is not exactly high on chrisbee's personal DIY scale, but since he doesn't have a job or any money he'll just shut up now.

Test run on Zazzle

SilkScreen t-shirts

There are many people in the community with SilkScreen shops. We can speak to Rock Paper Scissors collective down the street.

Disadvantages

• Messy, especially when Plastisol (commercial grade screenprinting ink for textiles) is involved.
• Plastisol needs to be heat set in an industrial dryer at 320° F. Putting your shirt in the oven usually results in a crispy golden brown effect better suited for pie crusts but not quite as tasty (or wearable).
• Design will require a lot of consensus which will take a long time
• I'm not sure what the learning curve vis a vis DIY screenmaking (not printing, but burning the image onto the screen) at sudo would look like, but "somewhat steep for non-hackers, damn near impossible for anyone when it's busy or crowded" sounds about right.