You Have Your Blog, Now Get the T-Shirt

This week I've had loads of fun designing my own freebie t-shirt courtesy of Printed Wardrobe and Fuel My Blog. I could have chosen one of the many designs already available, but decided I'd be missing out on getting something more unique and personal, so I plumped for a wearable version of Veg Plotting ready for the next time I answer gardeners' questions :)

I had plenty of different styles to choose from. I've been fed up lately with the flimsy material and shorter sleeves available in the shops, so I was really pleased to find exactly what I wanted: a heavier weight Beefy-T as the starting point for my design (stop sniggering at the back there).

I'd been pondering whether to use my blog's header photo or my avatar, but then I realised it would be great to use both. As I already had the images I wanted to hand, it was a breeze to load them up and get cracking with the design software. All I needed to do was choose my preferred t-shirt colour, do a bit of resizing, positioning on front and back, plus adding some text and I was soon done. You can preview what you're doing very easily, but I found it best to have a t-shirt with me to do some final visualisation of the positioning and size of both my images and text.

Once I'd saved my design, it was time to set up my account and place my order. This was soon done and my t-shirt was quickly on its way to be modelled by yours truly :)

Now here's a tasty offer for you...
  • If you want have a go yourself, do get cracking by the end of September 2011 and use the code DESIGN20 at the checkout to get a 20% discount. NB make sure you click on the arrow key to the right of the discount code box, otherwise your discount won't get applied. I didn't manage this (doh!) and had to get things sorted by email. I can report that the response by Printed Wardrobe was prompt and friendly :)
  • If you choose to make your design public, then you can earn commission whenever someone buys your design. Who knows, there may even be a Veg Plotting t-shirt available sometime...
  • So you have your blog, now get the t-shirt!
Before you start, here's some more hints, tips and other points to note...
  • You will need a Paypal account as this is the only payment method accepted (despite the payment logo including credit cards shown at the bottom of the webpage). This also means your goods can only be sent to the address you have on your Paypal account
  • T-shirts start from £11.99 (June 2011). I chose a heavier weight (and therefore more expensive) cotton so it'll last for ages. Adding a second image to my chosen design added £5 to the base cost
  • Postage and packing is £2.15 irrespective of order size
  • There's also hoodies, sweatshirts, vests, sweatpants, polo shirts, rugby shirts and various accessories (bags and suchlike) to choose from
  • There's a wide variety of colours available: actual choice varies with the item and style chosen
  • Don't worry if you haven't got a suitable photo or artwork, there's plenty you can choose from on the website which you can then personalise
  • There's quite a few different fonts available for your lettering and you can also curve it into e.g. an arch or circle
  • It's probably best to get the image the way you want it before you upload it as there are only very basic edit functions available - cropping, resizing, image tilting, colours and a few colour effects if you add graphics from those available
  • If you choose to use a photo, make sure it's one with a good resolution. This will give you more flexibility with cropping and resizing. It also gives Printed Wardrobe a better chance to provide you with an item of good print quality
  • You don't need to purchase straight away - you can save your design for later
  • Do make sure you have something you really want and that it'll be the right size - as it's a one-off item, refund options are restricted (check the website Delivery and Returns policy for more information)
  • Do shop around. This website is good for personalised, one-off items but there's plenty more out there. If you're wanting e.g. 4 or more of a design, there are loads with much lower prices (though I can't vouch for quality or service of any of them apart from this one!)
Some ideas for Printed Wardrobe to make the buyer experience even better
  • I would have liked to know exactly what size images and lettering I was applying to my design
  • A guide to cloth weights would be useful - how meaningful is e.g. 145 gsm to most people? How does that compare to what's available on the high street?
  • I couldn't find an Undo option - would have been most useful, especially when playing with the tilt image functionality as I wanted to make sure I returned my image to the horizontal. Instead I deleted the image from the t-shirt and added it again which is a bit clunky
  • The upload image seemed to freeze at one stage (or was happening very slowly - probably my browser's fault) and doesn't have a cancel option for trying again. At least I could use the backbutton to get out of trouble...
  • Include credit/debit card payment options - lots of people don't have a Paypal account or would prefer not to use it
  • An option to send goods to another address would be useful e.g. so delivery can be made to a work address or neighbour
  • Include an option to buy without needing to set up an account - you'd attract buyers who are put off by having to set up yet another user-id and password. If they like your product and service, they'll soon come back to set one up for their subsequent purchases
  • NAH (my husband) would love to make a polo shirt of his blog, but with an embroidered logo. I suspect he'll be looking elsewhere now you've given him the idea!
  • Any chance of adding fleeces to the range? I suspect their material's not compatible with the temperature required for printing?
  • There was a mistake in the despatch notice email I received in the order details: £21.99 + £2.15 does not = £26.29 (I can forward what I received to you if that helps)

Comments

  1. petoskystone3 July 2011 at 12:19

    nice! when buying tee-shirts i avoid anything described as 'ladies tee' as it means lighter weight, shorter length, narrower shoulders, & a pinched waist. in other words, it's a large size girls' shirt with a higher price tag.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris3 July 2011 at 14:17

    Fancy Pants!!!

    I need to get some hoodies printed for an upcoming fishing trip so I'll check these guys out, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lucy Corrander Now in Halifax!3 July 2011 at 15:31

    Sounds fun - but sounds expensive too. The points you make will be worth the company taking note of.

    That thing about passwords and accounts etc.. There are so many sites which demand membership / ID / regular payments where one-offs would be welcome. It's all very irritating. As you say, they might be more likely to draw in new customers / users if this could all be simplified.

    Lucy

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP3 July 2011 at 16:00

    Petoskystone - that's exactly what's bugging me about what's available in the shops!

    Chris - don't forget the 20% discount code if you do!

    Lucy - to be fair I did go for the top of the range option and an extra image, so it is possible to get something much cheaper. The amount of online accounts that NAH and I have is a constant source of ranting in this household. So far I've only found a handful of companies who offer the buy without an account option. I'm a repeat customer with them because they're allowing me to buy online in the way I want to :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dobby3 July 2011 at 21:46

    Perhaps An Artists Garden should have some printed for her staff in September!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Julieanne4 July 2011 at 17:30

    Nice idea. I don't like buying t-shirts with logos, so this is a good answer. I can plug myself rather than giving free advertising to some multinational! I also like the fact they offer t-shirts for women who don't fit barbie sizes.

    Just one question - is the cotton Fairtrade or do they have fairtrade cotton t-shirt options?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Robert Webber4 July 2011 at 20:18

    Move over Dior and Chanel its the VP Fashion House!
    Best
    R

    ReplyDelete
  8. Karen - An Artist's Garden5 July 2011 at 20:55

    I have just read Dobby's comment!!!

    Actually I was not thinking about the staff - I was thinking about me! Sounds fun VP - I used to have Sweatshirts printed when I was on the craft fair circuit - but that was a few years ago now - I will have to check them out
    K

    ReplyDelete
  9. Janet/Plantaliscious6 July 2011 at 11:15

    Oooh, get you! That sounds like fun. I remember wandering in to a "design your own T-shirt" shop in California (where else) with a colleague. They provided fabric pens, glitter, bits of fabric to stick, well, you can imagine. An hour later we had created a T-shirt for our boss complete with glittery bits, which we then made him wear. At work. All day. Yours is a lot more tastful, and presumably doesn't leave a glitter trail.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sophie PW12 July 2011 at 12:27

    Hello everyone! I work for Printed Wardrobe so hope I can help with some of your questions and queries. First off, thanks for all the feedback - we appreciate all the comments, it helps us make our business better! On a couple of things, I hope this helps - We do accept credit/debit cards. On the left side of the Paypal page is the credit card payment. I think some people assume it's a registration for Paypal - unfortunately this layout is not owned by us or we would make this clearer - but we plan to make it clearer on a payment instructions page thanks to your feedback. In terms of the weight of the clothing i.e. gsm reference, we will look at establishing a better use of terminology. At the moment our system requires users to register so that your personal details can be saved against your designs (they would otherwise be lost within our huge number of designs) However, we understand the frustrations of being asked for login details with every website you use, so we are looking into how we can streamline this process and make it less focussed on login details. Finally, we are bringing in a range of fairtrade tees, polos and hoodies soon. Unfortunately fleeces are viable as we use digital printing methods but we have a sister company that can pit fleeces and embroider if anyone is interested. I understand I haven't touched on all the point raised yet, but I don't want this post to fill the page so I'll come back to address any other queries separately. Again, thanks for the feedback! Sophie

    ReplyDelete
  11. VP15 July 2011 at 07:54

    Sophie - welcome and thanks for answering on behalf of PW. Folks - it was Sophie who dealt so promptly and efficiently when I got in a muddle with my order.

    I need to recheck how the screen is working re credit card payments because I'm sure when I clicked on the icon at the bottom of the screen, the pop up window only talks about paypal. However, this might work differently at the checkout.

    ReplyDelete
  12. VP15 July 2011 at 08:03

    Sorry I missed replying to loads more of you...

    Dobby - that sounds a very good idea ;)

    Julieanne - I see Sophie from PW has answered your question re Fairtrade options :)

    Robert - hmmm House of VP?

    Karen - it was a fun thing to do and I'm thinking about doing another one - completely unrelated to blogging!

    I do like the sound of your T-shirt. I bet you had lots of fun and giggled a lot :)

    ReplyDelete

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