screenprint it

How to get a 1-bit design onto fabric in your kitchen, two ways — the dead-cheap stencil and the real burned screen.

You picked a design. Now you put it on a shirt. There are two roads: the freezer-paper stencil (one shirt, tonight, ten dollars) and the burned screen (fifty shirts, this weekend, the real thing). Start with the first one. Graduate to the second when one shirt isn’t enough.

Road one — the freezer-paper stencil

The gateway drug. No screen, no chemicals, no light. You need a craft knife and the patience to cut.

you need

• A shirt (someone’s, ideally)
• Freezer paper (the kind with one shiny plastic side — NOT wax paper, NOT parchment)
• A printout of your design at the size you want
• A craft knife / X-Acto and a cutting mat
• Fabric paint or screenprinting ink
• A sponge brush or a small foam roller
• An iron
• A piece of cardboard

do it

1. Print the design at full size. Tape it under your freezer paper, shiny side down.
2. Cut out the black parts with the knife — you’re making a stencil, so the black areas become holes. Keep the little “islands” (the inside of an O, the eyes of the skull) — set them aside, you’ll place them back by hand.
3. Iron it on. Lay the freezer-paper stencil shiny-side-down on the shirt and press with a dry iron, medium heat, ~15 seconds. The plastic melts just enough to seal the edges to the fabric. Press the islands down too. Sealed edges = crisp print; gaps = bleed.
4. Slide cardboard inside the shirt so paint doesn’t soak through to the back.
5. Dab the paint through the holes with the sponge — straight down, don’t drag. Two thin coats beat one thick gloppy one. Thin coats keep the edges sharp.
6. Peel while wet, carefully, before the paint forms a skin that bridges paper and fabric.
7. Heat-set once dry: iron over a thin cloth for a couple minutes, or follow your paint’s instructions. This is what keeps it from washing out.

One stencil is good for one or two shirts before the edges get gross. That’s the catch. When you want twenty, you burn a screen.

Road two — burn a real screen

This is actual screenprinting. More setup, infinitely repeatable, sharp as hell.

you need

• A screen (a wood or aluminum frame with mesh — 110 mesh is the friendly default for shirts)
• Photo emulsion + sensitizer (a kit; Speedball Diazo is the classic starter)
• A squeegee that fits inside the frame
• Your design printed in solid black on transparency film (the positive — black ink blocks light)
• A light source (a 150W incandescent flood bulb, or the sun, or a cheap UV/exposure setup)
• A dark room, a piece of glass, black fabric, and a hose or shower
• Screenprinting ink + the shirt + cardboard

do it

1. Coat the screen. In a dim room, scoop a bead of mixed emulsion and drag it across the mesh with the squeegee — thin, even, both sides. Let it dry flat, in the dark. This part is patient work; rushing it ruins the screen.
2. Build the sandwich. Once bone-dry: black fabric on the bottom, then the screen flat-side-up, then your transparency positive (reading correctly, so it’s mirrored on the flat printing side), then a sheet of glass to press it tight.
3. Expose it. Hit it with your light. Times vary wildly — a 150W bulb at ~30cm runs roughly 10–15 minutes; bright sun is a few minutes; a real exposure unit is faster. The light hardens the emulsion everywhere except under your black design. Do a test strip the first time. Underexposed washes out everywhere; overexposed won’t wash out your image.
4. Wash out. Take it to the shower/hose and spray gently with lukewarm water. The unhardened emulsion under your design dissolves and your image opens up as clear mesh. Don’t blast it — let it reveal. Hold it to the light: ink goes through the clear parts.
5. Dry and touch up. Block any pinholes with tape or screen filler. Now it’s a tool you own.
6. Print. Shirt on a flat board, cardboard inside, screen down on the fabric. Lay a line of ink above the design, then pull the squeegee across at ~45°, firm and even, one or two passes. Lift the screen straight up.
7. Heat-set every print — heat press, or iron through a cloth, or a few passes with a heat gun — so it survives the wash.
8. Reclaim or repeat. Print the whole stack. When you’re done, emulsion remover strips the screen so you can burn the next design onto it.

When it’s dry, wheatpaste the leftovers — print your design on paper too and put it on a wall.