As I said earlier, this isn't a true transfer but a method of printing directly onto fabric. This is the one way I can get consistent results, in color. You can use an image, a line drawing or a botanical as I have here. I cut this fern frond and petunias from my garden minutes before printing them. Arrange them on your printer screen and close the cover.
There are a few things to keep in mind:
Prepare your fabric by ironing it as flat as possible, you don't want any wrinkles. Cut the fabric and a piece of freezer paper slightly larger than 8.5 x 11". Lay the freezer paper shiny side down, against the fabric and press till it adheres.
Use a flat edge with a roller cutter to get straight edges.
You don't want any threads dangling or crooked cuts.
You can use an 8 x 11" sheet of paper as a guide, I usually draw around it with a pencil on the freezer paper. Lay the straight edge on the paper - the fabric edge to your right. Use pressure on the roller to keep it from slipping and cut through both pieces at once - just a hairs width inside the 8.5x11" line. This gives it a little space as it runs through the printer.
You now have a piece of "paper fabric" which can be fed through the printer. If you find the freezer paper comes loose, press it again and lay a book on top of it till it cools. This helps it adhere and keeps it from curling.
Printing
This is what works best for me, you may have to experiment with your own printer to get the best results.Set printer for standard print
A couple of times my paper would come loose at the edge and twist in the rollers, leaving a permanent ink splotch on the fabric - upper left corner in this image.
There are a few things to keep in mind:
- This only works with ink jet printers (Lasers use a powder toner)
- You must use Freezer Paper, not wax paper
- The smoother the fabric, the crisper the image
Prepare your fabric by ironing it as flat as possible, you don't want any wrinkles. Cut the fabric and a piece of freezer paper slightly larger than 8.5 x 11". Lay the freezer paper shiny side down, against the fabric and press till it adheres. Use a flat edge with a roller cutter to get straight edges.
You don't want any threads dangling or crooked cuts.
You can use an 8 x 11" sheet of paper as a guide, I usually draw around it with a pencil on the freezer paper. Lay the straight edge on the paper - the fabric edge to your right. Use pressure on the roller to keep it from slipping and cut through both pieces at once - just a hairs width inside the 8.5x11" line. This gives it a little space as it runs through the printer.
You now have a piece of "paper fabric" which can be fed through the printer. If you find the freezer paper comes loose, press it again and lay a book on top of it till it cools. This helps it adhere and keeps it from curling.
Printing
This is what works best for me, you may have to experiment with your own printer to get the best results.Set printer for standard print
- If you have a setting for heavier paper, use it
- Fill the paper tray about half full. Too much paper and it will jam - with no paper it tends to load crooked.
- Insert your sheet of paper fabric side down (if your printer prints this way)
- Arrange your image on the glass keeping within the guidelines and about 1/4" in from each sides to allow for a stitching line.
I finally figured it was because the rollers were slipping on the freezer paper instead of grabbing it. To solve this, I used some spray adhesive on the back side - just the top half - and pressed another sheet of plain paper against it. There are probably several different ways you could do this, but this was easy and worked for me. The paper fed through like a charm as you can see in the image below. The image on the right is printed on white cotton, the one below on a tan cotton. You can even print on colored or printed fabric, experiment to get different looks.
After this came through the printer I set it aside for the ink to dry then pulled the freezer paper away from the fabric. It's now ready to be framed, use in collages, quilting - any number of things.
NOTE: You can also use the full sheet labels, Avery is one brand. They come 8.5x11" and have the adhesive already on them. The down side is it's fairly expensive to experiment with. Freezer paper comes on large rolls, isn't expensive and the cut sheets can be reused several times.
