Welcome! We paint, photograph, digitize, and design all of the products in our shop. We partner with print shops to make and ship our products. Each purchase supports at least two small businesses. So, thank you for shopping small! 🥰

Our Story

Hi. I’m Meredith. My daughter is Madeline. We started Shirtacle. Here’s why.

Over the years, when you shop with your child, you invariably cannot find what you are looking for and you often end up making your own creation at home. Shirts were the thing we made most, but like most parents, we did a lot of arts and crafts as the years passed. Our dining room became our art room and that was and is still fun. But over the years we also learned that we didn’t have to rely solely on arts and craft supplies to make what we wanted. We could make things digitally. No iron-on transfer required! When we did make the shirt with the design that we just couldn’t find anywhere else it was a shirt miracle, aka, a shirtacle.

As online digital designing became more common, we created on sites like Shutterfly and Vistaprint and Art.com. Family and friends wanted products too, so as we had more time we tested opening small shops on sites like TeePublic, Redbubble, and Fine Art America. These are great options though we have little control over quality and customer service. This is when we learned about print-on-demand services. These companies allowed us to open an Etsy shop from our couch giving us more creative and quality control as well as the ability to support customers directly.

Since we opened our Etsy shop, our sales have grown by leaps and bounds. We love selling on Etsy though there are some limitations which is why we’ve taken the step to reach more people with a larger catalog of products using our own website as another sales channel. And, as my daughter prepares to go to college in the fall, I am excited to pour more energy into this little art shop we started together.

Our Process

At this stage in this business, I can explain my process in just a few steps. I paint, I photograph and digitize the art, and I design products using print-on-demand (POD) web services. I’ve been doing this long enough now to know what works and what doesn’t. Most of the kinks have been ironed out though we do still have logistical hiccups like shipping carrier delays or print shop errors. Our POD partners make and ship all of our orders.

Our Partners

The only way a shop like ours can work is by working with partners. Through trial and error, we’ve found a few POD services that offer good quality items at a range of price points to fit many different budgets. We have also added services to support the shop as it grows including customer support, social media, and web development professional services. We could not do this work alone and we wouldn’t want to!