Design Your Own

Your design. Your shirt. Made one at a time, right here in South Carolina.

You bring the idea. We print it, press it, and ship it to you.

This is not a mass-produced shirt. Every Design Your Own shirt is made individually, just for the person who ordered it. That is why it costs more than our regular $20 catalog shirts, and why it is worth it — nobody else will have your shirt, because nobody else ordered it.

Choose your print method

Sublimation Tee — $35: For light-colored, 100% polyester shirts only. Printed in-house on our own sublimation printers. The ink dyes the fabric itself, so the design feels soft, breathes, and will not crack or peel. Best for: white, light grey, light blue, and other light poly shirts.

DTF Tee — $40: For any shirt color and any fabric — cotton, polyester, blends, black shirts, dark shirts, all of it. Your design is printed as a transfer by our local print partner, then pressed onto your shirt here in our shop. Colors stay bright, even on black. Best for: dark shirts, cotton shirts, and any design with a lot of color.

Both options include one side — front OR back. Want both sides? Add the Both Sides Add-On for $10 (see below). Shipping is $7 flat per US order, same as the rest of the store.

What you must do — step by step

Step 1 — Order your shirt: Pick Sublimation or DTF, pick size and color, and check out. The order number is in the confirmation email and is needed in Step 2.

Step 2 — Send the design, right after ordering: Fill out the upload form; tell the order number, where the design goes, how big, and any names, dates, or wording. Send the file via a Google Drive or Dropbox link ("Anyone with the link"), or email it to southernloveteesapparel@gmail.com with the order number in the subject line and type EMAILED on the form. Do not skip this step. We cannot start your shirt until we have your design.

Step 3 — Approve the proof. We do not print until you do. The shop checks the file, lays it out on the shirt size and color, and emails a proof. The customer checks spelling, names, dates, placement, size, replies to approve or to say what to fix. If the file is not sharp enough, the shop will say so honestly and ask for a better file, and will not print a blurry shirt and hope you do not notice.

Step 4 — We make it and ship it: Once the proof is approved, the clock starts (see wait times). Print, press, check, pack, and ship to the address on the order.

How long you will wait — and why

The wait starts AFTER proof approval, not on the day of ordering.

Sublimation: 2–4 business days after proof approval to ship. Printed in-house, so there is no outside wait.

DTF: 3–5 business days after proof approval to ship. Your transfer is printed locally by our print partner (1–2 business days for pickup, based on our experience with them), then pressed and packed here.

Shipping transit after that depends on USPS and location. Business days are Monday–Friday, not counting holidays.

If you have not sent your design, or have not approved your proof, your shirt is waiting on you — not on us. We will not rush a print to make up for a late file, because a rushed custom shirt is how mistakes happen.

Why a custom shirt costs more — the one-print-and-done reason

Regular $20 shirts are cheaper because the design is made once and repeated, spreading setup, file work, and proofing across every shirt that design ever sells. A custom shirt is one print, and done: file checked by hand (size, resolution, background, colors, spelling); a proof made just for that customer, with approval waited for before touching a shirt; for DTF, a transfer ordered for one single shirt with no bulk discount and no leftover stock; for sublimation, a single print run, pressed, and checked on its own, not as part of a big batch; pressed one at a time, by hand, on heat presses; if there is a mistake after approval, or the customer changes their mind, that shirt cannot be put back on a shelf and sold to the next customer.

That is what you are paying for: a shirt that exists because you ordered it, made start to finish for one person. The $35 / $40 price covers the blank shirt, the single print or transfer, the proofing and pressing time, and the $7 flat shipping is added at checkout like everything else in the store.

Your design file — what we need

  • PNG file, transparent background, 300 DPI or higher, at the size it will be printed.
  • No screenshots, no blurry phone photos, no low-resolution images pulled off social media. If it looks soft on your phone, it will look worse printed big on a shirt.
  • One design per order. A second design is a second order.

What we cannot print

No trademarked or copyrighted designs — Disney, Nike, sports teams, TV and movie characters, brand logos, band logos, or anyone else's artwork the customer does not own or does not have written permission to use. This applies even if the customer sends the file themselves. If the shop is not sure a design is theirs to print, it will ask, and will refuse it if it cannot confirm it.

We also will not print hateful, threatening, or harassing designs.

Refunds on custom shirts

Custom shirts are made just for the customer and cannot be resold, so there are no refunds or returns once the customer has approved the proof and the shop has printed it. If the shop has NOT printed it yet, contact the shop right away and it will work with the customer. If the shirt arrives damaged in shipping, or the print is wrong compared to the proof approved, contact the shop with photos and it will make it right.

A mistake on our end is on us — a design you approved as-is is not.

Shirt care

  • Wash inside out, cold water.
  • Do not use bleach or fabric softener.
  • Hang dry if you can, or tumble dry on low. Less heat means the print lasts longer.
  • Wait 24 hours after delivery before the first wash.