Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with shirts

Shirt-ironing hacks?

Bardolph — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:29:42 -0800

How can I get faster at ironing shirts? We're talking standard men's cotton dress shirts, and I'm currently averaging an abysmal 15-20 minutes per shirt, with the shirts not looking all that great by the end anyway. (I'm using my $10 WalMart iron from college, but answers to this question seemed to suggest that the iron doesn't matter that much.) I think part of the problem is that I'm constantly having to change the position of the shirt on the ironing board in order to get all the little crevices (underarms/wrists/etc.) pressed. But it could also just be that I suck.

I got into this to try to tighten our recession budget, but my time's got to be worth more than $5.25/hr, right? If you've managed to break that elusive three-shirt-per-hour barrier, would you mind sharing what (equipment, techniques, hacks, irons, boards, approaches) worked for you?

Shirts for swimming?

fogster — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:57:11 -0800

What type of shirt do I wear swimming? Where do I buy them? I'm going swimming (in a pool) soon, but for whatever reason, I've never felt comfortable in public not wearing a shirt, even in situations where it's expected, like swimming in a pool.

I've seen some shirts that are meant to be worn in the water. Is it normal to wear these in a pool, or are they meant more for surfing? Where do you buy them? I assume wearing a T-shirt will end badly, since it would just get soaking wet and cling to my body.

The t-shirt is dead. Long live the t-shirt?

carsonb — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 16:20:55 -0800

My band t-shirts are dying. How can I replace them? I have a couple of t-shirts that are precious to me. They've been staples in my wardrobe for years now, and they're falling apart. Oil splatters, holes in the armpits, wearing designs, fraying edges, etc. This is expected, and they're now my favorite relaxing-around-the-house tees to wear. But I like the designs so much I want them to be in my normal out-going selection still. And into the foreseeable future. They were both purchased at merch tables outside of the respective artists' live shows, and I haven't seen them since. Not at subsequent shows, not on artist or label websites, and not at band shirt-type stores in my area. Where can I get old band tshirts? Where can I get these band tshirts, specifically:

- Yo La Tengo - It's a blue Fruit of the Loom tee with the name of the band being beamed down from a UFO in white on the front.

- The Shins - It's an asphalt American Apparel tee with a green maze printed over the left breast. The name of the band can be deciphered in the center of the maze.

?

We want shirts, but don't want to infringe on any trademarks or copyrights.

IndigoRain — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:07:03 -0800

I run a website dedicated to vintage PC games (that is, games from the late 80s, early 90s). Ad revenue has been declining, and a co-admin suggested making t-shirts to sell to support the site. I have questions about what art/words we can use on the shirts. Obviously we can't use actual screenshots or art from the games or boxes. We'd also stay away from using the company's logos and the names of the games, assuming that those are also trademarked.

1. Can we use the game's character's names as a t-shirt slogan? (e.g. "Long live King Bob!") What about the names of the fictional lands within the games? (e.g. "I went to the Land of the Purple Isles and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!")

2. My website domain name contains the name of the company who created these vintage games. It's still okay to use my domain name on the shirts, isn't it?

3. Can we use fan-art on the t-shirts that depict the characters or scenes from the games? How different does the fan-art have to be from the actual art from the game?

4. Can we use any quotes from the games?

History through hair.

Jezztek — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:41:08 -0800

What should I name my new project? (hint: it involves hair and significant historical figures). Howdy,

So I sell t-shirts and I'm working on a new project.

I've decided to do portraits of interesting historical figures. The twist is that I'm trying to do the illustrations using only a silhouette of the target's hair (ok, ok, sometimes I cheat and include an extra little detail: a pair of glasses, cigarette, mole etc).

My plan is that I'll do them in batches of six all revolving around a single topic. For example my launch sets will be Existentialists, Modern Painters, Physicists and Commies.

So yeah, obviously this isn't really meant to appeal to the masses, just a fun nerdy little side project. The problem is I'm to the point where I really need to register a domain to move forward and I am completely incapable of thinking of a decent name for the site.

I need something that's easy to remember and somehow conveys "this is a quirky, nerdy t-shirt site about the hair of historical people"

Any ideas?

Recommend casual button-down shirts for sale in NYC

Spacelegoman — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 12:28:20 -0800

Please recommend good quality button-down shirts for sale in NYC for a slender guy - I'm looking for something casual that can be worn tie-less and untucked if I'm in the mood, but still well made with good fabric and cut, i.e. at the level of Thomas Pink or w/e but casual. Priced up to around let's say $200 a shirt, although if it's less that's even better. Thanks!

Ummmm...

the NATURAL — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:47:00 -0800

MarketingFilter: So. . . I made a tacky (yet delightfully unrefined) t-shirt. How do I best sell it online? [Long jump] A couple months back, I was looking to start up my own t-shirt company, along the lines of established companies UNDRCRWN and Pennant Race -- that is to say, a company with heavy sports influence with a sprinkling of pop culture and a dose of societal commentary. Maybe even a No Mas, but less for hipsters and yuppies and more for hip hop heads and anti-establishment people.

So I came up with a name -- ftw. clothing, with ftw being adapted from gaming-talk as for the win, but with the added connotation of f-ck the world. Our poster boy was going to be Rod "He Hate Me" Smart, a one-time kick returner for the Panthers (and other lesser stints).

My flagship shirt? In the spirit of old NBA playoff shirts featuring starting fives, I would have a simple black-on-white colorway and a starting five. But my starting five wasn't going to be a basketball team -- it was going to be related to crack. (Here's where the collective "eep!" comes in.)

Now, you might ask, but why? That's horribly tacky, maybe even not delightfully unrefined, and probably very offensive. And yes, I acknowledge that. It's kind of the point. I wanted a "statement" shirt, one that would make people think -- because really, for middle and upper America, and especially in my home of Hawai'i, crack is something that people think of in abstractions, and ghetto is a term applied to anything sketchy, when really, some of the worst ghettos are terrible things. I wanted a shirt that would put this reality in peoples' faces. In a way, it was like the infamous "Snowman" shirts popular earlier in the decade.

The shirts read:
Pyrex &
The Arm &
The Hammer &
The Spot &
The Raw

I printed them hoping that I'd be able to sell them (via consignment or whatever) in one of the newer less-established boutiques in Honolulu. I approached the one that I thought would give me the best chance, and the manager was totally cool with me -- but because of limited space, he couldn't run the shirt on the store's shelves. But if I showed him a season's lineup of designs, he'd be willing to put me in touch with his industry contacts and maybe I'd get something serious rolling.

After tinkering around and coming up with some designs (some were even pretty good) I realized that I didn't have enough to make a season's worth, probably because it was never my intention to make this my entire career. The manager understood, and encouraged me to give it some more thought and maybe talk to him in the future if I wanted to give it another run.

But now, I have 13 shirts left (I printed 15, thinking that I would get them on shelves, no problem) and I don't really know how to market them online.

They're not made with enough love for etsy, I can't get into supermarket, and I think that on other lesser sites, they'd sell... but probably over an extended period. eBay is a possible strategy, but I'm unsure about how to market them/title them and if they'll sell (and auction fees are preferably avoidable).

So... how do I move these shirts, preferably quickly, preferably digitally? (But any kind of movement is fine!)

(PS. For those of you who sometimes like to dig in OP's past records for dirt/help/what have you, yes, I acknowledged I set off a real sh!tstorm [that I'm just now reading, hey!] with my very first AskMeFi. The lesson, as always: sometimes I'm a real idiot. Sorry if you remember it, and doubly so for the ignorance.)

Thanks.

Shirts and Prints that go Squee!!

wo — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:34:33 -0800

Seeking cute apparel/prints for online purchase, in the vein of boygirlparty and Nut and Bee :) Hiya! I'm looking for some cute shirts, or possibly even prints/stationery. I couldn't resist the octotee from boygirlparty, and there are some prints that make me squee inside. I also have Moo cards featuring art from Nut and Bee, and I am looking very forward for their shirts in the coming months. (Squee Exhibit A, B, and C.)

Can you recommend any other sites with similarly cute artwork/clothes for sale? The common theme I am seeing so far is happy smiley animals. Especially octopuses. This isn't a requirement, but it seems to work! Thanks! :>

Disclaimer: I am a hetero male and can only pull off so much cuteness. (i.e. I'm not exactly looking for Hello Kitty-type stuff.) Also, if you recommend Threadless for t-shirts I will politely decline and then proceed to give you the evil eye. ;)

Why are ironing instructions on cotton shirts inconsistent?

Busy Old Fool — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:48:56 -0800

Why do different pure cotton shirts suggest that they be ironed at very different temperatures? I have 100% cotton shirts with labels that say they should be ironed at one dot (110°c), others that say two dots (150°c) and others three dots (200°c). Why such a range of suggestions for (seemingly) identical fabrics?

Note that I am not asking what temperature I should iron cotton at in general - please don't derail. I am an experienced and capable ironer and am only asking about this discrepancy in labelling!

Cheap custom t-shirt website

brenton — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:00:57 -0800

Where can I order 25 color shirts with a single-color custom design (that I can upload) on the front? I'm looking for as cheap as possible. I need to do the shirts for a camp that is starting on Sunday. The shirts need to arrive by next Thursday, and I can't spend more than $200 total. I have my own design ready to upload, but I haven't been able to find cheap non-bulk places.

What the Well-Dressed Man is Wearing

Ollie — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:51:13 -0800

Snazzy Gent filter: What is the difference between a button-down shirt versus a point-collar shirt? I mean in terms of formality. I'm looking for a shirt for my SO that he can wear with jeans (right now he has suits for the workweek and tee-shirts for the weekend, I'm looking for something in-between.)I'm specifically looking at this shirt versus this shirt. Which one is right for jeans? Does it matter? Thoughts from the snazzier gents out there?

Wrinkly Shirts and Linty Towels

phrakture — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:48:09 -0800

[LaundryFilter] I need help de-wrinkling and de-linting my clothes and towels! This is kinda two questions in one, but I expect they are related.

a) I have a few shirts that I love, but react as if they were made of paper whenever I wear them. They come out of the dryer fine, but after hanging for a bit, they end up looking like tissue paper (small, fine wrinkles). Ironing has the same effect - looks nice for a matter of minutes, but they seem to spring back to tissue-paper state.

Any tips for ways to keep things less wrinkly (including shirt collars on button-up and polos) and save me some ironing time would be appreciated. Think buying one of those fabric steamer things would help?

b) In a similar manner, I have some towels that always seem to get lint all over me when I dry off. I like the towels, but the lint factor is annoying. I've tried drying them in a drying repeatedly, shaking them out, and a few other things, but it doesn't work. How does one de-lint towels like this?

So yeah. Help me figure out my laundry issues and I'll give you a cookie.

What should I do with my elbowless shirts?

zeoslap — Sun, 10 May 2009 10:08:45 -0800

What should I do with ten nice dress shirts that all have a hole in the left elbow? They seem too nice to just toss but I'm really at a loss what to do with them. Any ideas?

Looking for a tailor in Chicago.

wfrgms — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:20:06 -0800

Chicago-filter: Can you recommend a competent and not too expensive tailor? (Bonus questions about alterations inside.) Looking for a tailor, preferably one near UIC / Greektown / Little Italy, but one in the Loop would be good also. Will travel for the right place.

As for the alterations:

I've realized the sleeves on one of my suit jackets are too short by about an inch. Luckily* it's a cheaper suit so there aren't faux button holes, just buttons which can be moved without weirdness. What should this alteration run me, money-wise?

The other issue concerns some dress shirts. I have three that are too long. I wear a 33 sleeve and these are 35. Can yo take in dress shirt sleeves? It's probably a lost cause, but I did pay a lot for these shirts and they fit fine in the neck and shoulders...

Thanks for any advice!

*Then again if I had paid more it probably would have been altered right the first time.

Casual (but stylish) clothing blogs for aging hipsters?

MeatLightning — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:20:05 -0800

Casual (but stylish) clothing blogs for aging hipsters? I'm looking for some blogs that feature cool clothes that you can actually buy. Like HYA meets Etsy but for stuff beyond Ts and hoodies. Whatup green!?

I give up... I can't find any clothes I like. I've been digging for ages now. Occasionally I'll find a shirt or two from the usual suspects (Urban, AA, H&M, etc) every now and again... but my success rate is low. Like 75% of the crap I end up with doesn't fit right or is boring or both.

I'm looking for some blogs that I can frequent to find cool clothes. Like HYA but for stuff beyond Ts and hoodies.

For style background, I'm basically looking for stuff built from solid fabrics (I love seeing the weave - like linen or canvas) in earth tones with some kind of flair (like cool buttons or epaulets or interesting cuts.... nothing crazy). Sort of one part military, one part Marxist, one part haute couture... Does that even make sense?! Fsssh... no sense at all... maybe that's the problem. Ugh!

Anyway, help!

Please?

How should I manage these garments?

Baby_Balrog — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:42:45 -0800

Is my brother right about caring for these Brooks Brothers non-iron shirts? Help! I've recently acquired a half dozen lovely new Brooks Brothers non-irons (blue tag). I need to wear one tomorrow morning but they're kind of wrinkly from being recently purchased.

My brother swears that the best method for caring for them is to wash them cold and let them hang dry. This seems crazy to me because the nice lady at Brooks Brothers says to just wash and dry them like normal because the heat from the drier activates the resin that releases the wrinkles. BUT maaaybe she's just saying that so I go through the shirts faster by wearing them out! Thus necessitating the purchase of additional marvelous BB non-iron shirts!

1. Is my brother wrong?
2. To get one in working shape for tomorrow could I throw it in the dryer?

Atlanta printer tee shirt recommendations

canyon — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:36:29 -0800

Hey guys, I'm am trying to find a screen printer tee shirt in the Atlanta area so I was hoping someone might have a recommendation. I know it may be a tall order, but I am trying to find a printer that can fulfill all, or at least most of my requirements in house. Ideally they should be capable of performing the actual screen printing, heat transfers for rhinestones, embroidery, and tag relabeling. Most of the printers I have talked to contract out the heat transfers and embroidery, but I'd like a printer that can do most of this in house, because of my time constraints. I already have my designs and shirts, but I just need to do get them printed. Thank you so much for your help!! Canyon

I'm looking for the opposite of good white shirts — cheap, thin white long-sleeve 100% cotton shirts, preferably very large in size.

adipocere — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:11:53 -0800

I'm looking for the opposite of good white shirts — cheap, thin white long-sleeve 100% cotton shirts, preferably very large in size. When I work out or do anything sweaty, I like wearing a very oversized (but thin) shirt over everything else. And by oversized, I mean huge. I have just a couple of shirts like this, but of course there's no sign of the manufacturers on the labels still existing online.

Target left me cold. Kohl's? Nope. I thought eBay would have a ton of them. About as cheap as I can find them online is fifteen dollars. Not even Walmart has anything but nice white shirts. Not that nice, but still nicer than I can justify sweating in. Even suppliers of blank shirts (not a lot of those for long sleeves) seem to hover around the fifteen dollar mark. Marshall's? Mostly shirts of the icky variety.

Is this just one of those things where the absolute bottom price is fifteen bucks unless I'm purchasing a hundred of them?

These United States...t-shirt?

prior — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:38:34 -0800

I'm looking for a t-shirt that I saw a guy on the street wearing today. It's gray with a lighter gray screen of an outline of the united states, and the state of new york in silver. My assumption is that they make these for a number of states, not just New York.

Any leads would be helpful; also, suggestions of good t-shirt companies in general much appreciated. I know about threadless but that's about it. Thanks!

Tired of shirkin' when shirtin'

Shepherd — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:22:02 -0800

What do I need to know before buying a white dress shirt? I'm at a point in my professional life where the whisper-thin $14.99 white dress shirts just aren't cutting it. Before I take the half-assed step to the merely rumour-thin $30 white dress shirts, I wonder if somebody natty among the MeFi set could give me some pointers. Where are the price points for quality in white dress shirts? What should I look for when shirting up?

For bonus points: I live in a smallish Quebec town where the closest stores are all Canadian chains like The Bay, Sears, etc. Sites like this one seem to offer ... er ... shirts of quality I cannot ascertain at prices that may or may not be reasonable, which would be convenient. Essentially, I have no idea what I'm doing here, so any thoughts would be appreciated.

Is there a T-shirt fulfillment API?

racecar — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:17:46 -0800

Is there an automated way to have t-shirts printed and shipped? I'm writing a program that will allow users to have their custom designs printed (a la spreadshirt). Is there any API out there that I could give the image and address and payment, and have it take care of that fulfillment? My friends are already expressing an interest in buying some of these designs I'm talking about, but I don't have any scalable way to take their stuff (order info, design image, payment, shipment info), and instantly turn it into a fulfilled order. I don't want to be another Threadless or Zazzle. I just want my users to have this feature.

I know of APIs that just dispatch the user to one of these sites. I want to get a callback, and be able to know when users have ordered a shirt, so I can reflect the fact that they bought a shirt on the site. I'm offering users some extra functionality when they've bought a shirt.

Where can I find pastel oxford dress shirts, size 14?

ptsampras14 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:47:38 -0800

Where can I find oxford type dress school shirts in a size 14? I am looking for pastel school shirts, size 14. I have the normal colors (yellow, pink blue white) but I want green, orange etc. The better the brand (Ralph lauren, tommy hilifiger), the better. I know polo doesn't make size 14, and I would like direct links to the item not just brand websites. Btw, I want oxford with the buttons on the collar, not dress shirts and also the cheaper the better but thats not really an issue. Thanks

Long sleeve shirts for a small guy

sjl7678 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:44:30 -0800

Where can I find long sleeve, casual, button-down dress shirts for a small guy? Lot's more information inside. I've been looking for some new clothing recently and it's not going very well. I like how I look in long sleeve dressy-ish shirts. The problem is that I'm a fairly small guy. I'm around 5'6" and weigh between 120 and 130 pounds.

All of the size 'small' dress shirts I try on in stores are definitely too big; the sleeves go to my knuckles and the rest of the shirt falls partway down my thighs. I've resorted to using dress shirts from the boys' section for work. The ones I wear are about a size 18 in boys'. The sleeves are slightly too short but I deal with it. Unfortunately they usually only come in black, white, or some ridiculous striped pattern that's not really my thing. Help!

I'd like to find shirts that fit me, aren't just black or white, and would look good untucked with jeans. I'm not looking for really flashy or gaudy patterns; I like muted colors and more subtle patterns. I know I'll probably have to shop online to find what I need and that's fine with me.

A bit more background: I'm a fairly experienced swing and blues dancer and have started tango recently. That means that I usually roll up my sleeves to around the elbows pretty often. That also means they get sweaty and need to be able to be washed in a regular washer (I can't afford constant dry cleaning). As an aside, if anyone has tips for rolling up sleeves so they 1. stay rolled up and 2. don't look absurd, they'd be appreciated too!

I know you might be thinking "Why bother with long sleeves rolled up? Just get short sleeves!" I have tattoos that sometimes need to be covered (for work) so short sleeve shirts are not really an option.

One thing I've considered is tailoring. There are a bunch of tailoring places in my neighborhood; if I bought shirts that were too big for me and brought them there could they tailor them to fit me, or do most tailoring places only deal with suits and the like? If so, how big should I buy so that they have enough to work with? I'm pretty clueless when it comes to that kind of thing.

As for price range, now that I have a full time job I'm more flexible than I was in college, but keeping it under $40 would be wonderful. Less is even better.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me! If there's anything I left out just ask and I'll reply as soon as I can.

Small shirts for small girls with big boobs

booknerd — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:26:13 -0800

In search of women's button-up shirts for cuteness and layering with cardigans! Why is this so hard? It is so hard, in part, because I'm verrrrrry busty, short, and short-waisted. This is an unfortunate combination, but I really love the look of slim-cut button up shirts and skirts and heels, particularly when layered with cardigans. I have a couple of shirts that I wear like this, but they don't really fit perfectly. They always always always pull at the second or third button (whichever one buttons directly over my bust), and are usually a bit baggy in the waist area. I'd love something that fit properly, both over my 32F boobz and around my 27" waist. That would be neat. Since I've had such terrible luck with this in the past, I'm hoping for suggestions that I can also try on, like major brands or things I can find at chain stores. I realize that darts are probably my friend, as are somewhat stretchy materials, but this is still proving a nigh impossible quest.

Where does this shirt pattern come from?

karl88 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:22:20 -0800

What is the origin of these shirts? I have this shirt. i want to know where it comes from. not where it's made, but where in the world does this pattern and style come from? PatternShirt01.jpg PatternShirt02.jpg thanks!