“Wait, what does your shirt say?”

When we talk about the ability and right to self-experiment and to DIY, a common theme that comes up is about freedom of speech and the freedom to self-experiment. And there’s a well-known example of someone who put their code on a t-shirt. In the back of my mind, I always thought one day I would do that (create #OpenAPS shirts with code on them), but didn’t really get around to it, because we’re a little busy doing other things 😉 for the most part.

However, a few months ago I was itching to do something crafty, but I’m not a really crafty person. So, I decided to hack the process and use technology to facilitate my craftiness.

The design process

I’m not a designer, just like I’m not a traditional programmer/engineer/whatever. But what I learned from pancreas building applies to other DIY areas, too! I knew Spoonflower enables you to custom print cool fabric, but I didn’t realize anyone (like, you know, me) could upload a design and have it printed in your fabric of choice. You don’t need fancy design software, either – I used PowerPoint to create the design, exported as an image, and uploaded to Spoonflower.

(The one limitation is that before ordering any of the fabric in a traditional order, they require you to print a sample of it first. But if you do that, it’s a $12 sampler and you might as well do a couple of designs. You can iterate on your one design, or do multiples. And I like hashtags, so I designed some hashtag patterns, too. But don’t worry – since I already printed my oref0 code as a sampler, it doesn’t need to be re-sampler’ed – you can order away now if you so choose. )

Once I got my sampler, I went over to the Sprout Patterns website, which is connected to Spoonflower. I had my eye on this shirt, but there’s dresses and shirt patterns of all kinds. (You can also just get the fabric printed and do any kind of shirt pattern you want.) But the other reason I did Sprout? Because I have talented sisters- and cousins-in-law who were willing to sew the shirt for me, but they’re super busy. So I decided to pay the $25 to have someone from Sprout sew my shirt.

The finished shirt:

How to get your own shirt (or the fabric for whatever you want)

Because I marked my design as “public”, you can go to Spoonflower today and order prints in any size and any of the fabric that you want with that design. (I used “modern jersey” for my shirt). As the “designer”, I do get 10% of the cost of any yard printed with one of my designs on it in SpoonFlowerCash, which means I’ll probably use any of that to design more patterns and order another set of samplers so there are more colors/code options/font sizes to choose from in the future.

However, if you want the shirt to come made for you, go start on Sprout. Pick the pattern you like, pick your size, and then you can “design” your shirt using any of the Spoonflower designs, including the #OpenAPS oref0-determine-basal code. You can find it by searching OpenAPS, oref0, determine-basal, my username (danamlewis), etc.

You can move the design around and figure out where you want it to go. You can make any piece of the panels/sides of the shirt in different patterns or colors, so you can pick an accent color for a sleeve or cuff or belt, etc.

Pro tip: If you’re doing the Sprout route with the White Glove Service (where they sew the shirt/garment for you), in the comment area, tell them you want the extra “scrap” fabric!

#OpenAPS code cases

I have a pile of scrap fabric that I sent pictures of to the wonderful Tallygear team, and talked Donna into trying it out to make me a pancreas case. 😀 (Like this idea for a case design? Let her know! She (or anyone else) can order this fabric on Spoonflower, too, to make cases. The fabric isn’t quite the same as the neoprene we’ve been using, but it’s still got some stretch and I’m incredibly biased but I think they’re awesome!)

—

So, that’s how I ended up wearing a shirt that makes you do a double take and say hey, that code sure does look familiar….

If you end up printing the fabric or designing your own pattern or shirt or pancreas case after hearing about this, I’d love to hear about it, please do share pictures!