Does anyone design and sell t shirts and actually make some money?

[BuoyBoyBy]

My daughter loves art and wants to study fine art in university.
I'd like to find a way for her to understand that she needs to sell stuff to make money and thought designing and selling t shirts might be a fun way to start without investing a large sum if it doesn't work out.
Does anyone do this or have advice on how to begin?
Thanks in advance.

Anyone?

Honestly dropshipping has made the profit margins on this kind of thing so slim, and have really oversaturated the market (in my opinion). Someone I know makes them for a really small niche - our joint hobby - and has basically lost his business to people who've slapped a design through Canva and organised it to dropship for a small margin.

Perhaps she could approach local charities/schools and offer her design skills on t-shirts they already know they need/will order? She can then still see how the whole project would work and experiment/look at numbers and see the kind of profits she'd be making if it were free?

How would she make the t-shirts? Would they be screen printed? Or printed elsewhere? Just wondering what processes you are thinking about as that will effect how much they cost to produce. If she's into painting that may be a better place to start - painting some small canvases and trying to sell them, or producing cards. I think it would be best to work out what she likes making already/what techniques and see what she can produce from there.

People's pet portraits are popular

I’ve got a couple of friends who sell their art through websites. The website sorts all the printing and stuff

I think this is one of them - https://www.redbubble.com

That's what I want t want the Mumsnet hive mind to tell me 😀

Try Teemill.com op. She designs the T-shirts and they do the rest. Small margins but people make money from it. Good luck to her!