Printing your own designs on fabric

Jun 16, 2010

Lately, I've been determined to print my own designs on fabric.  After browsing some diy blogs, I finally ran a test run yesterday on my pigment inkjet printer.  It was surprisingly easy and so much fun! The bulk of the work is actually designing the fabric. I didn't want to spend too much time on a new design before seeing the print quality, so I used one of my drawings from this year as the basis of my fabric design.


I formatted the design to fill an 8.5" x 11" space.  Then I gathered some basic supplies to prep the fabric for printing. 


I used two different types of fabric.  One was a muslin and the other a cotton canvas.  I also experimented with using different backings for the fabric while printing, since fabric alone doesn't have the rigidity to run through a printer.  For the first test run, I ironed the muslin onto freezer paper cut to the same size (shiny side to the fabric).  With the cotton canvas, I decided to use cardstock as a backing.  I didn't adhere the fabric to the cardstock.  I just held the two pieces together as they were being fed into the printer.


Both fabrics and backings seemed to work fine in the printer.  I had to refeed the fabric several times, but eventually it took.

The print quality is not as vibrant as the original design (as expected), but the details on the printed fabric were impressive! And I didn't waste any time in using the new printed fabric.  See what I made in tomorrow's post!

8 comments:

big.tea said...

Oh, my gosh. That is awesome. Can't wait to see what you've made!

Nicky said...

I like it a lot! What are you going to use it for? I can't wait to do some myself. Must stop procrastinating, must stop procrastinating, must stop procrastinating.... : D

Cathy said...

I'm glad that you guys like it! I'm really excited about the fabric tape idea (see next post!).

that kate said...

This looks wonderful. I feel very inspired now.

belinda marshall said...

very cool ~ it looks great! makes me want a new printer :)

Chrissy Foreman C said...

YUMMO!! I've been wanting to get my artworks onto fabric for ages ... thanks so much for the tips!

Wiji Lacsamana said...

Hi! What printer do you use? :)

Cathy said...

Wiji Lacsamana, the printer shown in the photo is an Epson r1900.

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...