WEAR
THE
STORY.

Measure a shirt you already like, laid flat, armpit to armpit — that is chest width — and match it to the column below. Ours is a retail fit (tapered shoulders, dual side seams), which runs slimmer than a boxy Gildan-style unisex tee, so if you are between two numbers or you want room, take the larger size. Manufacturer tolerance is ±1 inch on both measurements.

Source: BELLA+CANVAS style 3001 measurement specification, bellacanvas.com/spec/3001.pdf.

Chest width decides comfort; body length decides whether it reads as a tee or a tunic. The chart above steps 2 inches of chest and 1 inch of length per size, so one size up is 4 inches more room around the body — a real jump, not a rounding error. For a fitted look, match your own flat-chest measurement exactly. For a relaxed or oversized look, go one size up and accept the extra inch of length that comes with it. All of our prints are front-and-back chest placements, so sizing up does not crop or shift the art.

Straight answer: BELLA+CANVAS states a maximum of 5% shrinkage on this blank, and washed cold and dried low it is typically 1–3% — under half an inch on a 20-inch chest, which sits inside the ±1-inch manufacturing tolerance anyway. Wash hot and dry hot and 100% cotton can lose closer to a full size. That is a laundry decision, not a garment defect, which is why the care line below is worth thirty seconds.

Turn it inside out, wash cold on a gentle cycle with like colours and mild detergent, and tumble dry low or hang dry. No bleach, no fabric softener, and never iron directly on the print — press the back of the garment instead. Heat is what kills a direct-to-garment print: the ink is bonded into the fibres rather than sitting on top of them, so it will not peel like vinyl, but repeated hot washes and high-heat drying will dull it years earlier than it needed to go.

A direct-to-garment print on 100% combed ring-spun cotton, washed cold and dried low, holds its colour for the practical life of the shirt — the cotton normally wears out before the print does. What shortens it is heat and abrasion: hot water, high-heat drying, and washing the shirt right-side-out against zips and denim. Expect a slight softening of contrast after the first few washes as the ink settles into the fibres; that is normal for DTG and it stops there. Cracking and edge-peel are vinyl and heat-transfer failure modes, not DTG ones — we do not use either.

Because every shirt is printed after you order it, there is no shelf of stock to swap a size from, so we do not run open-ended size-exchange returns — that is the honest trade for made-to-order. The measured chart above exists so you never have to guess. What is guaranteed: if a shirt arrives misprinted, damaged, or as the wrong item or size from what you ordered, message us through Etsy with a photo and we will replace it or refund it. Every price on the shop carries a reprint reserve for exactly that, and all checkout, messaging, and buyer protection run on Etsy — we never handle your payment details.

Yes, and we disclose exactly where we use it. Concept and layout work on our designs is AI-assisted under human direction; all type is set with a real font engine, never drawn by a model; and no design uses a trademark, a logo, a sports mark, or a real person's likeness. Full detail, and the disclosure line we carry on our listings, is on our AI-disclosure page.

Three things you can check before paying: the blank, the print method, and whether the design is actually the seller's. Ours is a 4.2 oz Airlume combed and ring-spun cotton blank with a ribbed knit collar, tapered shoulders and dual side seams — combing and ring-spinning are what stop a cheap tee going papery and misshapen at the neck after a month. The print is direct-to-garment ink bonded into the fibre, not a vinyl patch waiting to crack. And every design is original art tied to one documented story, which is the part a $9 shirt structurally cannot offer. Where to check all of it for yourself: where to buy unique graphic tees online.