Printing on Fabric - Tutorial

Every year I help my husband choose gifts for his long time co-workers. This year, I was going to make handbags, but they are a very personal choice, as we all know. So I decided  to personalize an all-purpose tote instead. He chose a veggie label, from my collection, that would have meaning for each person.

Printing on fabric is a great way to add a personal touch to anything you can sew. A few tips I found are these:

• Use 100% natural fabric, like cotton or silk
• White fabric produces the brightest color, natural colored fabric lends and antiqued look
• Anything you can scan onto your computer will work, as well as photos from your collection
  
• Don't skip any steps!

To begin:

• Buy "Bubble Jet Set", it is a liquid. I purchase mine online here: http://www.cjenkinscompany.com
  
• Chose the fabric to prepare
• Shake bottle well, pour solution into a container, soak fabric for 5 minutes. 
• Hang fabric to dry, pour leftover solution back in bottle
• Fabric pieces need to fit the printer, 8 1/2 x 11", so your need to cut accordingly
• Iron prepared fabric to freezer paper, making sure there are no threads hanging over the sides
• Print your image onto prepared fabric, as a normal print
• Let dry for 30 minutes
• Peel off freezer paper and wash fabric in cool soapy water, rinse, dry and iron
• I usually use a double sided fusible interfacing to adhere onto my project and iron on, then sew around the image using a decorative stitch.
  

Since this process is a bit time consuming, I like to prepare alot of fabric ahead of time, so it is ready to use. The picture in the heart ornament (in a previous post) was done like this, I further "antiqued" that one by printing the pic in the sepia setting.
This is so much fun, you can come up with such great fabric designs that have meaning to you and your family! Have fun experimenting and please share what you have created with this method. I'd love to see it!