Need opinions on how to get sketches in Illustrator to become vectors

Have Illustrator CS6, Medium Baboo tablet. I can draw well but it seems almost impossible to get the quality of my sketch work to go to Illustrator in a way I am happy with. I do not like what I see from scanner to Imagetrace either. This is largely due to my inexperience in the process from sketch to vector to t-shirt. Can anyone give me some insight on how you approach this process from a pad of paper to Illustrator? Appreciate any help you can offer.