by Kellie Lovin Graebner
Our Shirts are 'Da Bomb' and Here's Why | How EOD Shirts Are Made
Whether you are buying an EOD Shirt, tank top, hoodie, long sleeve shirt, or even something for your dog to wear... we guarantee our quality. We put all of ourselves into our designs, quality of work, and customer service. However, we actually do not view any of you as mere "customers", we see you as family and friends and in kind we make quality stuff for our own.
When it comes to making EOD Stuff shirts, we make shirts how we would want to wear them. If we wouldn't pay money for it or wear it, we won't make it!
From the design, to picking out our quality apparel, to the process by which we make our shirts, we are laser focused on the entire process...from start to finish. We also value your opinion and do what we can to make you happy.
From the Drawing Board to the Screen
I taught myself Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop years ago when I first got into screen printing. I took classes in Los Angeles led by Ryonet Screenprinting. I continue to learn as much as I can to ensure that I'm on top of my game and can continue to make awesome graphics and apparel.
I design all of my own graphics, with the help and "supervision" of my husband, Kurt ;) From me to my husband to our EOD friends and family, all of our designs are made by EOD and screen printed by me.
After our design is made, we have to transfer it to the screen. First, we print out our designs onto waterproof film. We use an Epson 1430 printer with a BlackMAX output system and AccuRip Software to ensure the best quality for burning graphics onto our screens.
Next we prepare the screens. Think of screens as stencils. It's an in depth process and quite a work out if I do say so myself! We have to wash and degrease the screen. Then I "bake" the screens in our dry box with a dehumidifier all day long to remove all moisture.
That night, I will coat both sides of each screen with emulsion I use Murakami Aquasol TS Emulsion. My designs come out precise and clean, and it's very user friendly.
Then I put the coated screens back into the bake box to cook over night. The next morning, I burn the film onto the screen with my UV Exposure Unit. Then I race outside to the wash out booth and rinse out the screen before the sun can expose it any further. This is what really turns it into a "stencil" so to speak.
Then because I only use discharge ink or water based inks, I have to apply the screen emulsion hardener. And back to the dry box to bake for several more hours.
Say Goodbye to Rough, Hard Shirts. Say Hello to Your New Soft Favorite Shirt
First, we'll give you a quick background on what type of shirts and inks we use.
We use Eco-Friendly Water Base Inks and Discharge Inks for our cotton garments and silicone ink for our silkies and synthetic material garments (ie triblend tees, solar tops, etc.). For more information on silicone ink, check out our short blog post HERE.
We use discharge and water based inks because they both yield unbelievably soft prints, and are better on the environment. We all love to wear soft shirts that look great. Neither Water Based Ink nor Discharge Ink, will compromise the shirt. Hence, it's left with a super soft touch and feel. You literally will not even feel the print on the shirt!!
If your shirt is a light colored shirt such as White or Ash Grey, we use Eco-friendly water based inks. Water based ink is a special type of ink that literally soaks into the fabric instead of sitting on top of it, like plastisol which is commonly used. My husband has so many unit shirts he's acquired over his military career, which were such amazing shirts, but he can't wear them anymore because the graphics are peeling off or are all cracked. Boo!!! This won't happen with discharge and water based inks. Well...perhaps 20 years from now if you wear it every day.
If the shirt is a dark color such as black or Dark Heather Grey, we use discharge inks. The Discharge Ink is made of a base, discharge agent, and the dye color(s). This process literally removes the original dye in the shirt during the printing process. Once the original dye has been removed, the discharge ink will then re-dye the image area with your desired ink color.
Apparel: We prefer to use Next Level Apparel, Bella + Canvas, and District. They are extremely comfortable and quality material. Their shirts are made of light and breathable fabric.They fit extremely well. They are not clingy or tight, but not loose either. You get what you pay for and we pay more for these shirts because they are definitely worth it.
From The Screen to the Shirt
Now it's time for the funnest part - making the shirts!
Each screen is one color and one design. So for example, if your shirt has say a front pocket logo with 2 colors and a large back logo with 2 colors, that is a total of 4 screens. If there are multiple colors, we have to make sure to perfectly line up the screens.
Thinking of the screen as a stencil again, you load the screen/stencil into the screen printing machine, level and register it in regards to where you want the logo to go on the shirt, load the ink on to the screen, and then you push or pull (I pull) the ink through the screen/stencil into the shirt.
Then you have to cure the ink. Currently, I use a hand held heat gun. I dry the ink with that and then I load the shirt into my Heat Press and press it for 3 minutes at 300-340 degrees Fahrenheit. I want to make extra sure that the ink is cured. If it's a discharge print, I wash the garment before shipping it out. It's just the right thing to do as discharge tends to be a bit smelly and I don't want to turn anyone off or tell you to "wash before you wear it"!
Well, that is about it on the process by which we do our shirts. Thank you for reading our blog. Below are a couple more pictures of our studio.
My supervisor, Homer approves of my shirt!
