I Dress Myself - T-Shirt and Poster Screen Printing News

British birds for sale

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:11:00 UTC

New limited edition prints by the Bonsai Projects are now available in our shop.

Organic EarthPositive tees cost less

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:21:00 UTC

From Monday our supplier is reducing the price of their EarthPositive tees for Men and Women. This is because their production process - from spinning to packing - is powered by electricity generated by wind power so that, even though fossil fuel prices are increasing, their energy costs in production remain unaffected.

We're just pleased to be able to pass on a saving to our customers. All EarthPositive tees have reduced in (ex VAT) price by 30p per tee.

A big welcome to Emma

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:51:00 UTC

We're happy to welcome Emma Godfrey to the I Dress Myself team this week. Emma has an impressive ten years screen printing experience and will work closely with Helen to run the screen printing service. She's made a big impact this week already and we think Emma will make a big difference to the business as a whole.

Kate Moross prints at Pure Groove

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:58:00 UTC

This is one of a series of limited edition Kate Moross screen prints that we printed for an exhibition at Pure Groove in London. They've recently moved premises down the road in London to Smithfield and, to celebrate, they've had loads of in-store gigs and exhibitions. The screen prints are now for sale from their online shop. Take a look - there's a series of four A3 prints from this exciting new London artist and a fifth one in the pipeline.

Lots and lots of badges

Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 UTC

We don't like flyers. They're a waste of paper and just end up in the bin. In fact we hate all things disposable. We like to create more permanent things - things that people want to keep.

With this in mind we decided to make 5000 'I dress myself' badges to be distributed. If you can help us in the distribution of some of these badges or have any interesting ideas about how we can do it we'd love to hear from you.

Sneak preview Nick Saunders tee

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 UTC

Here's a sneak preview of the Nick Saunders tee 'cosmo'. Nick did work experience with us in Spring 2007 before he went off to get famous. Here he is sporting his new design, which we printed last week.

This limited edition of 50 Men's tees will be part of our next collection and the tees will be available to pre-order next month. If you'd like to be notified please join our mailing list. There's a new print and badges by Nick in the pipeline too so watch this space.

New Gemma Correll tee

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:00:00 UTC

Gemma Correll is a Norwich-based illustrator that likes cats...a lot. This is her 'faces' tee, which is now available from our online shop.

New website

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 UTC

Our new website is up and running and we love it. Have a look at our new products and be a part of the website by adding your comments to the designs and blog posts. Don't forget to sign up to the mailing list and you will receive regular updates as well as the chance to pre-order products before they're officially available.

Big, big thanks to Chris Tebbit who has been helpful, resourceful, hard-working and very patient with us over the past few months. Special thanks also to Alun Edwards of We are multiple for his help with the design of the site.

Computer Arts Projects

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 UTC

We're featured in December's Computer Arts Projects' special issue on fashion. We worked with Nottingham design studio Multiple to produce a special tutorial on designing and screen printing a T-shirt. Read the full tutorial and feature at CAP.

Green Innovation winners

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:00:00 UTC

We are joint winners of the BEST Experian Green Innovation Award for East Midlands along with Sherwood Press, also based in Nottingham. We won �2,500 AND Pete got to have his photo taken with a huge comedy cheque. Here�s their write-up about it.

Experian and BEST Network Green Innovation Award:
rewarding exceptional environmental commitment

Firms making exceptional efforts to embed environmental practice into their operations have recently been rewarded for their commitment.

To celebrate the successful completion of the BEST Network programme, one of the project�s partners, Experian, collaborated on the Experian and BEST Green Innovation Award. The Award focused on key resource efficiency topics namely: Energy, Waste Reduction/Management, Training, EMS/policy and Innovation.

After a thorough selection process, the joint winners were Sherwood Press Group Ltd and I Dress Myself � both located in Nottingham. Though differing in size, each firm demonstrated that environmental issues are pivotal to operations. Following closely behind was Leicester-based Polar Print Group Ltd as runner-up � again with visible commitment demonstrated throughout its business.

The joint winners received �2,500 from Experian for further resource efficient measures such as sourcing Fair Trade organic cotton (I Dress Myself) and new technology (Sherwood Press Group Ltd). Meanwhile, Polar Print Group Ltd was presented with a hamper of Fair Trade goods.

The Award marked the culmination of the BEST Network project which has assisted more than 500 East Midlands SMEs to save money and reduce environmental impact.

On the BBC England homepage

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:00:00 UTC

At least for a day.
Have a look at Pete printing some T-shirts in the feature Making an ethical t-shirt in its usual home on the BBC Nottingham website.

Organic cotton the way forward

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 UTC

The World Health Organisation estimates that 20,000 people in the developing world die every year because of pesticide poisoning, much of which is used on cotton crops. Pesticide poisoning is also thought to cause 3 million chronic health problems every year. Pesticides reduce soil fertility so that more and more chemicals are required to encourage crop growth, sinking farmers into more and more debt. Every year 200,000 farmers commit suicide because of their spiraling debt problems. Pesticide use is a dirty business.

All organic cotton is imported as it cannot grow in the UK. To sell an organic cotton garment in the UK, the cotton must meet the Organic Certification standards of the country it was grown in as well as the relevant EU regulations. Generally the land the cotton was grown on must have been free of pesticides for three years.

The Global Organic Textile Standard also enables the labeling of cotton fibre from the organic conversion period, for example '100% organic cotton - in conversion'. Cotton in conversion is grown on land which has only recently been converted to organic methods (typically less than 2 or 3 years). Therefore, although no chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers are being used, residues may still be found in the soil. This conversion period is very difficult for farmers, who usually experience an initial drop in yield, while not being able to obtain premium organic price for their crops. Therefore, purchasing organic cotton - in conversion is a great way to support farmers making the difficult transition to organic.

We are pleased to announce that we now use only organic cotton, organic cotton in conversion or bamboo garments. Not just for our own tees, but also the ones we source for other people too. This means our T-shirts don't contribute to pesticide use in any way!

Aah, we didn't win

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 UTC

One of three nominees for the Special Award for Innovation at the Nottingham Business Awards, we didn�t win. I was unable to go but Pete said it was a great night. Apparently I didn�t sound like an eedjit in the video clip they showed and Pete didn't get too drunk. Here's Pete walking up the red carpet on the way in.

Congratulations to G. H. Hurt (a fourth-generation family-run lace knitting company, founded in 1912) who did win. Find out more at the Nottingham Creative Business Awards 2007 website.

An ode to Modbury Town

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 UTC

Our new limited edition of 150 Ode to Modbury tote bags are now available.

1.2 trillion plastic carrier bags are used every year, which equates to 300 carrier bags each for every person on the planet. Much of this ends up in the sea. It is estimated that 46,000 pieces of plastic rubbish are floating on or near the surface of the sea per square mile of ocean.

Camera woman Rebecca Hosking was moved to tears when filming marine life near Hawaii for the BBC2 programme Natural World. Tides bring large amounts of rubbish to this part of the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the painful and unnecessary deaths of marine life such as turtles, whales and albatross'. Upon returning to her home town Modbury, in Devon, she showed the film footage to every shopkeeper in the town and they agreed to stop distributing plastic carrier bags. The scheme has been a huge success and many other communities are now choosing to follow suit.

Find our more about Modbury Town and their ban of the distribution of plastic carrier bags.

Nominated for the Nottingham Creative Business Awards

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 00:00:00 UTC

We've been nominated for the Special Award for Innovation at the first ever Nottingham Creative Business Awards 2007. The ceremony will be held on 18th October at the Council House in Market Square.

Art prints at Designers Block 2007

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:00:00 UTC

We collaborated with design consultancy Casciani Evans Wood to produce a series of posters for their new Ink Posters brand that will be sold at design stores and via the web. These posters will be exhibited this week as part of the Inspiration Unleashed exhibition at Designers Block 2007 in London. Find out more at Inspiration Unlesashed.

Shrigley tee in Malmo exhibition

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 00:00:00 UTC

Our David Shrigley T-shirt 'The End' is being exhibited at the Malmo Konstall in Sweden as part of David Shrigley's exhibition there. Some of the limited edition of T-shirts were also available in the gallery shop and sold out in the first week.

Now only using eco-friendly water based inks

Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 UTC

We're happy to announce that we�re using only eco-friendly water based inks now. We've been testing Permaset textile inks by Colormaker for the last few months and they've surpassed our expectations. We're moving across now, a month earlier than planned because we're so happy with the results. Bright colours, high opacity, robust and durable, and they feel much nicer than plastisol inks too. The white prints are very opaque on black - much better than having to do nasty discharge printing. All this without PVC or phthalates � they don�t even contain any white spirits.

Read more about waterbased inks and our environmental policy.

Sandman feature

Sat, 10 Mar 2007 13:10:00 UTC

Sandman magazine (a music magazine for the North of England) have written a lovely feature about us in their March edition. You can read all their kind words here.