My very favorite method of transferring images to fabric is to print images on fabric using an inkjet printer. When I first started printing on fabric some ten years ago I immediately fell in love with the process and it’s always been my favorite. I love the ease in which you can get an extraordinarily good print onto a piece of fabric in no time at all.
One of the challenges I had when I first started printing on fabric was of course getting the fabric to feed through the printer successfully without jamming. Printer jams are still a common problem particularly for beginners, but taking a little time and care to prepare your fabric properly will alleviate most of these problems.
There are a number of ways to feed fabric through your printer but today I’ll show you how to print on fabric bonded to freezer paper which is probably the most commonly used method. This method is inexpensive and easy, and the freezer paper can often be re-used. This method is suitable for standard types of fabric such as quilter’s cotton or silks. The downside to using freezer paper as a carrier sheet is that it can sometimes get jammed in your printer when feeding because of its tendency to curl up at the edges, and this can cause paper jams and sometimes a real mess inside your printer.
One of the ways to avoid this is to use Freezer Paper from C. Jenkins Co who also make Bubble Jetset 2000.
This freezer paper is probably slightly more expensive than the stuff you find in the grocery store, but it’s a much thicker paper – 54lb weight which is really nice and heavy, and this makes it ideal for feeding through your printer. It comes already precut so you don’t have to worry about cutting it to size and I use it myself and can guarantee that it will reduce the amount of paper jams in your machine. No affiliation, this is just a really good freezer paper.
But if you’re using freezer paper off the roll, you can still use this quite successfully. You first need to cut it to size so it fits through your printer. The size will depend on the standard size of a piece of copy paper that goes through your printer; in the US it’s letter size – 8 1/2″ x 11″. To avoid it curling at the ends, I generally roll it in the opposite direction to the way it curls, and then I let it sit for a few minutes. This seems to help it lay flat.
Next, cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than the freezer paper.
Iron the wrinkles out of the fabric so it’s absolutely wrinkle free, and then press it onto the waxy side of the freezer paper. Don’t use steam on the iron as this will ruin the paper, and make sure that no threads or bits of lint get caught between the paper and the fabric as this will ruin the print results.
Once the fabric is ironed onto the freezer paper, trim the edges of the fabric even with the paper.
Ta Da! Now it’s ready to feed through your printer. Make sure there are no loose threads hanging off the sides and every cut is nice and clean and straight.
In other tutorials I’ll show you an alternate ways of feeding fabric through your printer; there a few. But till then – happy printing!
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I recently discovered by adding 3 inches of regular xerox paper (I cut a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet) to my sheet of canvas using painters tape works in my Epson 3800 printer. You have to remember to re-size your image (not centered) for the extra inches in your printer settings.
Thanks Andy, I’ve got a photo tutorial coming up that demonstrates this method. It’s a little difficult to explain without a visual, but it’s my most used method also
Linda
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