The Care and Feeding of Fabric: Sticky Labels

The other week I showed you how to prepare fabric for printing using freezer paper as a carrier. This week let’s look at my preferred method for feeding whole sheets through the printer using full-page size sticky labels instead of freezer paper.

With printer ink the price that it is, I always like to ensure that each print has the best possible chance of turning out great and using sticky labels ensures that your fabric is *really* stuck to the carrier paper and won’t come loose as sometimes happens when using freezer paper. Sticky labels also tend to feed through your printer better because they are sturdier than standard freezer paper. Sticky labels are a little more expensive than freezer paper, however I can get up to about a dozen prints from each sticky label (using cotton fabric) before the sticky stuff wears off.

Start by gathering your supplies
1. Full sheet labels. Avery is a good brand and can be found at your local office supply store.
2. Fabric. The best type of fabric for inkjet printing is a fabric with a tight weave which will produce a nice even print.
3. Brayer with a hard roller. A brayer is a hand roller and can be found at your local craft store. Brayers come with either a soft or hard roller. The soft roller is used for printing and painting, but the hard roller is the one you need for this technique.
4. Scissors, or ruler and rotary cutter.

Cut and Iron your Fabric
Cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than the sticky label and iron to remove the wrinkles.

Prepare the Sticky Label
Remove the backing paper from the sticky label and snip a small corner of the label. This will allow you to easily lift the fabric in order to remove it from the label once it’s been printed.

Stick the Label to the Fabric
Place the sticky label sticky side down on top of the fabric, and using your fingers press the label in place.

Use the Brayer
Turn the label over so that the fabric is facing up and run your brayer over the top of the fabric. It’s very important to make sure that the fabric is securely attached to the sticky label and there are no wrinkles or bumps in the fabric.

Trim the Fabric and You’re Done
Using scissors, or a ruler and rotary cutter, trim the fabric to size ensuring that all loose threads are trimmed. Your fabric is now ready to go through the printer.

And that’s it! Your fabric should now feed through the printer easily, without any jamming or other accidents.

I also use this method for printing on organza and other sheer fabric and you can find full instructions here.