The Great White Tee
A T-shirt is a style of shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a crew neck, or v shaped neck known as a….v-neck.
T-shirts are generally made of a light and inexpensive cotton textiles in a jersey knit, the jersey knit comprises of one flat side and one piled side of stitches: loops of yarn in a row, a whole other subject which we will cover in the future around the construction of garment from the fabrics to the seams
The T-shirt evolved from undergarments used in the 18th -19th century known as the Union Suit often seen in western movies (in pink!!), with a handy flap at the rear so you didn’t have to take the whole thing off to use the bathroom.. this all in one union suit underwear was then cut into separate top and bottoms and was adopted by workers during the late 19th century as a convenient and cheap under. They soon became popular as a bottom layer of clothing for workers in various industries such as agriculture or mining, then moved from general worker to military undergarment through to casual clothing, along the same lines as much of our adopted work and military wear. The T-shirt was easy to size, easy to clean and inexpensive, and so became popular for men and boys.
The earliest documented T-shirt dates back to the 1898 Spanish American War and in 1913, when the U.S. Navy first issued them to sailors. These were a crew-necked, short-sleeved white cotton undershirt to be worn under the uniform or on their own when performing manual or hot work so as not to dirty their uniforms and then slowly, it became common to see veterans wearing their uniform trousers with only their T-shirts as casual clothing.
The actual word T-shirt became part of American English by the 1920s appearing in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
The 1950s saw the greatest rise in popularity after Marlon Brando wore one in A Streetcar Named Desire, then the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, with James Dean as the teenage delinquent with biker jacket ensemble which led to further notoriety with teens and lets not forget Steve Mcqueen - The King of Cool - often pictured in his white Tee
T-shirt versions are available in many different designs and fabrics, and styles and are among the most worn garments of clothing used today.
Fit
T-shirts that are tight to the body are called fitted or tailored, and come in medium or classic fits too, generally more relaxed in their shapes to provide a comfortable one for all size for those more generously proportioned around the midriff. :0)
Fabrics
For the fabrics they come in many differing cottons and poly cotton mixes but we’ll only run through the cottons here, although using synthetic blends such as poly-cotton is not necessarily a bad thing as long as this is up-cycled polyester, see circular use of polyester.
At the cheaper end of the spectrum this is mostly Upland cotton which is a short staple cotton mostly from the Americas. Short staple cottons have a slightly rougher and more uneven finish, as a side note which is helpful in spinning thread for denim to help create the warp and the weft. This grade of cotton is mostly used in cheaper labour countries for mass production.
For the next level of quality, cottons known for their longer staple cotton fibres are used, about 50% longer than the short staple versions, providing strength and a smoother and softer finish like Pima or Egyptian cottons. These are grown historically in Peru from the Pima tribe, now all across South West America and Australia, and Egyptian Cotton in Egypt, no surprises there…
For extra quality guarantees there is Supima cotton which is Pima cotton that has been grown in the U.S.A. and meets the very stringent requirements and standard enforced by the association.https://supima.com Superior and Pima = Supima
Sea Island Cotton, Suvin Gold & Giza Cotton seem to be the Gold standard of cottons, all have the commonality of being grown near water, either rivers or the sea providing high humidity growing conditions and more nutrients in the soil producing an extra long staple cotton, out of these Suvin is both the longest-stapled, strongest and the thinnest, this being a combination or hybrid of Egyptian and Sea Island Cotton.
Slub Cotton Yarn
The slub is an incidental lump in the cotton yarn. It used to be caused by poor control of the manufacturing process, quality of loom and imperfections in the fibre cleaning process. The intention was to create a smooth, even yarn, but sometimes slubs made the yarn a little uneven. Hand-spun cotton and linen always have slubs in varying degrees.
Slub yarn refers to yarn that has been purposely spun with slubs thin and thicker sections on the yarn weave While it was once seen only as a defect, slub yarn is now intentionally created to give fabric more personality. One for the reasons Cloth & Cut uses this, just another detail of uniqueness for every individual Tee.
By spinning slub yarn with predictable repeating slubs, the material woven from it develops roves, or intentional patterns within the fabric. However, slub yarn reduces the durability of the fabric as the yarn then inherently has weak spots.
Cotton GSM
Have you ever seen the GSM listed and wondered what that means? Well...that’s the weight of the fabric.
GSM aka gm/2 = grams per square meter and is the metric measurement of the weight of a fabric when talking about clothing. For example a t-shirt may be listed as 185gsm and another may be listed as 5.5oz the outcome is that these are basically the same as 5.5oz = 186gsm
You can work out any conversion of oz and gsm by using the following calculation
5.5oz x 33.906 = 186.48gsm
185gsm / 33.906 = 5.45oz
Generally speaking the fabric weight is a definition of the thickness of the T-Shirt itself and quality of the T-shirt, dependant on cotton type..(slub generally not as the qualities of slub are denoted by its inconsistencies not its weight). If you want a heavy t-shirt then a 180-200 gsm item is generally at the very top end of a t-shirt weight, but if you want a nice lightweight summer t-shirt a 130-150 is also great.
Cloth & Cut T-Shirts are made from 100% organic cotton & have GOTS Certification
Organic cotton is a natural, GMO-free fibre that uses less water than standard cotton. In addition, its production does not involve the use of chemicals, at all so no fertilisers or pesticide and encourages rotation of crops to keep soil healthier, more fertile and maintain humidity. Waste from the cotton ginning process is also recycled for the animal feed industry. This is something we support and will continue to use only organically and sustainability grown products along with suppliers who are GOTS certified..
GOTS CERTIFICATION
GOTS is the Global Organic Textile Standard label. The strictest certification for textiles made from organic fibres. GOTS tracks the entire chain of production from farm to factory: from harvesting of the cotton, weaving of fibres, assembly of items, to the final product before printing, including even the export of our clothing! It certifies that Stanley/Stella cotton is GMO-free and is grown without the use of chemicals and is processed and dyed without using any banned toxic substances.
GOTS also ensures compliance with the labour standards of the International Labour Organisation throughout the chain of production. it has a distinctively pliable texture compared to shirts made of woven cloth.
T-Shirt Design
The earliest printed shirts were not so famously the tees in the Wizard of Oz these highly sought-after collectible tee made for promoting the 1939 film The Wizard of OZ..
Many T-shirts produced in the 1960-70s are now enshrined in pop culture such as my favourite the yellow smiley face, the iconic Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara or The Rolling Stones Tee with the tongue and lips.
T-shirts have also been a standard form of marketing for Coca-Cola and Mickey Mouse for many years as well as an extra revenue stream for rock bands/stars on tour or promoting new albums.
T-shirt with designer logos were pioneered by Katharine Hamnett & John Richmond in the early 1980s, with outsize T-shirts with large-print and anarchic slogans. These then fell out of fashion with more subtle logos replacing them but again now T-shirts with prominent designer logos have become popular with brands like Off-White and Gucci with he renewed popularity of T-shirts with slogans and designs with a strong inclination to the ironic. These allow consumers to flaunt their taste for designer brands in an inexpensive way...
Designs on clothing goes back even further to heraldic, tribal, political, and religious symbols being used on armour and clothes in various cultures from as far back as certain as the Ancient Greek and Roman times, perhaps even further like the Sumerian civilisation.
Shobori or Tie Dye
Tie dye originated in India, Japan, Jamaica, and Africa as early as the 6th century. Some forms of tie dye are Bandhani the oldest known technique used in Indian cultures, and Shibori primarily used in Japanese cultures. It was not until the 1960s that tie dye was introduced to America during the hippie movement. Before the hippie movement Tie Dye was known as a hobby for older women. Other methods of decorating shirts include using paints, markers, fabric transfer crayons, dyes, spray paint, and many more. Some techniques that can be used include bleaching, daubing, stamping or block printing (our favourite) screen printing, stencilling and sponging, most are set explanatory but we’ll talk about a few of the techniques below.
Screen printing
The most common form of T-shirt design application is through screen printing. In screen printing, the design is separated into individual colours. Plastisol or water based inks are applied to the shirt through mesh screens which limits the areas where ink is deposited. In most commercial T-shirt printing, the specific colors in the design are used. To achieve a wider colour spectrum with a limited number of colours, process printing using only cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink or simulated process using only white, black, red, green, blue, and gold ink is effective.
Other methods of decoration used on T-shirts include airbrush, applique, embroidery, impressing or embossing, and the ironing on of either flock lettering, heat transfers, or dye-sublimation transfers. Laser printers are capable of printing on plain paper using a special toner containing sublimation dyes which can then be permanently heat-transferred to T-shirts.
Handprinted using block printing or wooden stamps
Our favourite.. the work is about the design and creative process of each individual design, albeit with very humble beginnings on my part with the old school typewriter typeface.. It is thoughtful, sustainable and are handmade individual pieces which is the most important aspect of all.
Woodblock printing (or block printing) is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. As a method of printing on cloth, the earliest surviving examples from China date to before 220 AD. Woodblock printing existed in Tang China during the 7th century AD and remained the most common East Asian method of printing books and other texts, as well as images, until the 19th century. Ukiyo-e is the best-known type of Japanese woodblock art print. Most European uses of the technique for printing images on paper are covered by the art term woodcut, except for the block-books produced mainly in the 15th century in India. Ref https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodblock_printing
Pre-requisites
• Organic Cotton fabric, pre-washed to remove starches and impurities
• Fabric printing ink
• Printing blocks. You can also carve stamps into halved potatoes or linoleum blocks, or you can buy traditional Indian printing blocks or rubberised wooden stamps with the typeface or design you have supplied
• One small ink tray, lined with one layer of felt, which works like a stamp pad or an actual stamp pad
• Pins - to keep the garment and area to be printed in place.. no smudging please
• A flat surface covered in cardboard or old towel / rags
• An iron
Time to be creative!
I hope you have enjoyed what you have read here today. All this has been compiled from distant memory, from many sources, books, magazines, the internet and the actual sources referenced with the links. Using the words directly from these sources.
Please do comment on this or any other of my blogs..