Getting Custom T-Shirts Made: Is There a Good Way to Do This?

Is it actually possible to get a custom t-shirt made with an image on it (i.e. something I scanned) that makes it look like an actual t-shirt you might buy in a store? I know you can go to, like, photo-developing places a'la Snappy Snaps and they'll do it, but those always look like someone badly ironed-on a thick sheet of plastic. In the old days, to do real screen-printed shirts, you had to order at least 50 or whatever. Has this technology advanced?

Short version: I want to put a .jpeg on an American Apparel shirt for a gift and have it look nice. Can this be done? Thanks in advance for any advice...

imo the question should be "is there a good reason to do this?"

Come on man, that doesn't seem necessary.

I have done this for my daughters. You can get really good iron-on transparencies at [big box office supply place] and print full-color on them.

There are dif. sheets and processes for dark or light fabric. (One gets printed backwards.) It's delicate work but you if you an exacto knife before peeling the print away (it's thinner than tissue) you can cut a ton of detail into it....

you if you an exacto knife if you use an exacto knife

do yr own silkscreening. find yrself a local dude (or art student) to burn you a screen for $$$; print them yourself.

like, is it a batshit complicated design?

yes obv. nicer, but to make just one shirt?

Come on man, that doesn't seem necessary.

just a bit of fun, carry on

I got one done at a kind of arty place in SF which was pretty good (the print went over the collar bit of the neck and over a lot of the shirt so it wasn't just a rectangle on the front). iirc it was about $30-40 for just the one shirt, would be less per unit for more.

i got one from zazzle with gustav mahler's face that i wear a lot

I don't have any helpful advice but I've been thinking about this lately too

i'm currently looking at a place in chicago that does direct-to-garment printing which is basically threading a t-shirt through a fancy inkjet printer. (it's $6 a shirt but $11 shipping...) i don't know how good it will hold up to repeated washes but since it is dyed directly to the shirt, it should at least not feel plasticky and nasty. if you are crafty you can build your own rig to do it: http://hackaday.com/2010/06/06/how-to-diydtg/

I did this via cafepress dot com with good results. you upload the image yourself, choose yr size and colour and you're all set. only thing is the image has to be hi-res.