Inkjet Printing on Fabric

Intro: Inkjet Printing on Fabric

Forget about printing on some transfer paper and then ironing it onto some fabric. With some freezer paper you can print right on the fabric itself. No need to reverse the image and it's faster, cheaper, and more effective.

STEP 1: Materials List

Cloth? Check.
Freezer paper? Check.

STEP 2: Cut to Size

Cut a piece of fabric a little bit bigger than the 8.5"x11" that your printer can handle. Or, if you have a bigger printer, go bigger.

Cut the freezer paper to an even larger size to give you a nice margin of error here.

STEP 3: Iron Together

Place the working side of the fabric onto the ugly old ironing board you have lying around. Now place the plastic side of the freezer paper down on that.

In other words, the working surface is safely facing the bottom and the paper side of the freezer paper is facing you. Now iron it together. The two pieces will become one.

STEP 4: Cut to Size - Part 2

Trim the combined fabric paper to something your printer can accept. For me, that's letter-size. For my friend, who bought a massive Epson printer while flush with cash, that could be two-feet by whatever.

STEP 5: Stick It In

You now have a piece of fabric that is supported by the attached piece of freezer paper. This makes the resulting combination solid enough to be grabbed by the printer without flopping about. Treat the finished piece like a regular piece of paper and stick it into an inkjet printer. My printer flips the paper over and then prints on it so I placed the piece in the tray with the fabric side down.

STEP 6: Print!

Find some image you want on a piece of fabric and print away. You'll be surprised at the level of detail. This Instructables logo in the picture is just over two inches wide.

You can print anything you want. I found this technique because a friend wanted to create some treasure maps for a pirate party. If you want the image to be on something that will get a lot of use you might want to treat it with this stuff.

Comments

[Crafter864]

Can I use parchment paper or plastic wrap instead? Or are there any other freezer paper substitutes?

[xsie]

I believe the plastic side is wax paper. While you could try using that, I wouldn’t want to run an iron over the waxed side and it might be difficult to get your printer to accept it.

[shesornery]

No. The idea of the freezer paper is the "plastic" side that sticks to the wrong side of the fabric when you iron it. Parchment paper won't stick. Plastic wrap will melt and you will have a terrible mess, and would probably ruin your iron.

[ChristineB218]

I'm French, what is Freezer paper ?

[Sheepandsweetsstudio]

I used Google translate to answer this and maybe you know this by now but I got "papier congélateur". sorry if I butchered it but hopefully it answers your question and helps the next french speaker who finds this freezer paper technique

[shesornery]

Le papier pour congélateur (ou papier sulfurisé au Royaume-Uni) est un papier résistant avec un revêtement en plastique sur une seule face. Le revêtement en plastique scelle l'humidité. Lors de l'emballage des aliments dans du papier pour congélateur, le revêtement en plastique va contre les aliments, avec le côté papier ordinaire à l'extérieur.

[skipperlovesfrogs]

It’s thick baking sheets

[taimysha]

Cut down to size after you have ironed on the freezer paper. You'll want all of your edges good and sealed to the paper and cutting after will ensure this.

[stuartmitch]

So you can only print on white fabric?

[juniorlarry09]

How to set a fabric transfer into a printer

[craz1]

Hi! I want to ask if we could use "STICKER PAPER" instead of "FREEZER PAPER". We cannot find any freezer paper here in the Philippines. Thank you for your reply.

[smills32503]

I just taped my fabric onto a piece of cardstock, worked fine

[deborahwarnock]

On the tv I saw a lady print using tape to a sheet of regular paper and it worked
.. (double sided tape If you use card stock make sure to change printer to ajust.!

[SuzeenS]

there no freezer paper here too. i suppose sticker paper should be fine but way way more expensive :/

[Tgee48829]

The first time I tried this technique was about 15 years ago and we used wax paper and it works great

[zappy1333]

Wax paper would not iron to fabric

[deborahwarnock]

For fabric to be washed, Does it need heat set or is it washable at all?

[AlisonW9]

If you don't have freezer paper, use the plastic-backed paper that they use to wrap reams of printer paper in. It irons on just fine, and it is free to anyone who has a contact in an office that uses a photocopier.

[PamelaH77]

Two questions please: where are we copying a pattern to go on the fabric? Is it like copying a photo off the computer or do you have to use the copy machine on the printer? and after this is done...can it be put in the microwave? I want to make a herbal pack and it has to be microwaved. Thank you

[mickey_chelle]

does anyone know if this will work with a laser printer ?
Dont want to mess up my printer - its a big professional laser printer I use to print business cards on.