Printing on Fabric at Home

I love printing on fabric from home to get custom pieces and it’s so easy to do. There are a few different ways to print on fabric at home depending on your project.

There are a number of store-bought paper backed fabric sheets options. However, these can get really pricey. Here are a few examples:

Jacquard Ink Jet Fabric 8.5'' x 11'' Cotton Sheets (10 Pack)- $9.60 on Amazon.com

Avery Printable Iron-On Fabric for Inkjet Printers, 8.5 x 11 Inches, Pack of 5- $7.99 on Amazon

Here the iron-on version was used on a onesie to mark each month for my niece, Emma’s, first year. A very cute idea and easy to print at home but they do get expensive.

Awwwww 

One DIY tutorial I found had me spraying cardstock with spray glue, adhering it to the fabric and cutting it to size.  This fed through the printer just fine but after removing the cardstock, the back of the fabric was left a gross, sticky mess. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS METHOD.

Here is a much cheaper (and far less sticky) DIY version using…

Freezer Paper! 
You can find it at any craft store, in some supermarkets and anywhere online. 

Reynolds Freezer Paper, 75 square feet- $4.64 on Amazon

How to:

Press and starch the fabric you want to print on and iron on a piece of freezer paper, larger than 8.5x11”, shiny side against the back of the fabric. Cut it to size (8.5x11”) to fit in your printer. Make sure to snip off any loose threads.

Any lingering fray will get caught in the printer. It’ll separate fabric and freezer paper and the ink will smudge and make a big mess.

If you are not sure how your paper will feed through, use a piece of regular paper and draw an arrow on it. Remember how you place the arrow in the printer and it’ll tell you how the paper feeds through. For my printer, the fabric needs to be paper side up (fabric side down), top of the fabric in first (if the fabric is directional).  If your printer feeds from the back, you’ll want it fabric up, top of the fabric leading into the printer first.

  

Unlike me, make sure your printer has sufficient ink before starting. 

 #blondemoment

After the fabric comes out of the printer, press it with a dry, hot iron to set the ink. Empty out the water/steam reservoir if need be to make sure it’s DRY. After pressing, simply peel off the freezer paper and use the fabric for your project. 

The freezer paper can then be ironed onto different fabric for another go through the printer. You can reuse the same piece of freezer paper up to 5 times, or so.

Another tutorial I found suggested doing a white vinegar rinse to the fabric set the ink. I didn’t find that this helped, but it didn’t hurt either. So go ahead and make your fabric smell like feet, if you’re so inclined.

What to Print:

You can print anything you’d like on your fabric: names, labels, favorite quotes, pictures, clip art. I use Microsoft Word to create what I want because I’m the most comfortable with that. You can use whatever program works for you. I’ve printed my “alice’s youngest” label, smart-ass sayings, song lyrics, TV and movie quotes, etc.

Some fun examples to re-design and use:

Printing Pictures: When printing photographs (especially of people), use an off-white or cream color for the background fabric. White tends to make the people in the photo look washed out and weird. 

Fabrics to use:

solid white

(These looks blue because of the lighting but they’re white.)

solid colors

large patterns with lots of negative space like this lovely pattern found on Amy Butler’s website 

or this pretty butterfly repeat found on Mood.com (yes, Project Runway lovers, THAT Mood)

 

Or this one from Spoonflower.com

small subtle patterns work well, especially with bold text

This is an adorable black and white princess fabric from Michael Miller that was colored in and made into a dress. 

Ridiculously cute!! And it inspired me to do something similar. I printed this black and white house for my 4 year old to color in. I found this clip art house on Google Images and printed it on white fabric.

Tom used ultra-fine tip Sharpies to color this in.

Very proud of himself.

He LOVED doing this so much, he won’t let me cut it up and make anything out of it.

When Your Project is Bigger Than Your Home Printer:

When you need a custom pattern bigger than an 8.5x11”sheet that you can’t print at home, I recommend using Spoonflower.com. Once you create a free account, you can upload your own designs and pictures or use their design/editing program at picmonkey.com.  Both are very easy to use. They’ll print your fabric and ship it to you through USPS.

 

This fabric can get pretty expensive but when you order your own designs, you get a 10% “designer discount”and they have a large range of fabric choices to choose from.

I’ve ordered the basic combed cotton and the Kona Cotton. I really want to use make something with the Minky.

You can order by swatch, fat quarter, or 1+ yards. 

Here are some of my designs. I used picmonkey.com to create custom fabrics for each of my sons using their names and nicknames in a repeating pattern. I’ve used this fabric for quilt backings, pillowcases, Christmas stockings and in quilt blocks.

These are fabric books I designed using Microsoft Word and uploaded to Spoonflower. They are fat quarter size so I get 4 books to each yard and they make cute mini fabric books for baby showers. 

 

Spoonflower.com is a great alternative to printing at home when you need larger pieces for bigger projects. 

Have fun printing on fabric! Post any projects you've made with these methods!

***I have no affiliation with any of the companies mentioned.***

Alice's Postcards

These fabric postcards are great for any occasion and they are so easy and fun to make. My mom, Alice, has been making these for years and my son loves getting them in the mail.  

Here she is with all four of her daughters in front of her fifth blue ribbon winning quilt, which earned her Master Quilter status. While she was visiting a few weeks ago, I made her walk me through the steps. Here they are:  

You can use anything for the back (picture side) of the postcard: selvedges, Whimsical fabrics, pieced blocks, scraps, etc.

It’s the perfect excuse to fussy cut that cute fabric you’ve been holding on to.

There are two different ideas for the front (writing side) of the postcard: fabric or cardstock.

Alice Says- If you ask Alice, she’d firmly encourage that fabric is the way to go. Here she is trying to tell Damon, but he isn’t listening.

You’ll need

4 ½ x 6 ½” both back fabric (picture side) and front fabric (writing side)
Fusible Fleece –Pellon 987F

Décor Bond- Pellon Fusible 809

Picture side- Piece together whatever you’d like for the back (picture side). For this example, I used some cute Christmas fabrics.

Keep in mind that you’ll be trimming ¼” off the outer edges later AND that the final stitching around the edges will use up another 1/8-1/4” of the outer edge, so if you’re fussy cutting, make sure to allow for ½” all around.

Press front (writing side) fabric with starch…

Alice Says- “Git that sucker flat.”(Direct quote.)

Fuse Décor Bond onto wrong side of fabric.

 

You can use standard white like a regular postcard, a solid color or anything you’d like to write on. I used a white on white pattern for this Christmas postcard.

Trim to 4 ½ x 6 ½” and set aside.

Take the back (picture side) and fuse fleece to wrong side.

Now quilt this piece however you’d like. This is a great chance to practice your Free Motion Quilting, use decorative stitches, different colored threads, ribbons, small buttons, whatever you like.

Lay your two pieces wrong sides together (picture side and writing sides out). I use spray basting, spray adhesive or a glue stick in the center. From here on out, you’ll only be stitching around the edges so don’t worry about your needle gumming up with the glue. Once these have been put together, trim to 4x6”.

Time to do the final stitching: I use this stitch here

mostly so that it stitches along the outer edge but it also grabs a bit of the pieces further in. These stitches also work well and you can always satin stitch around if you want (but not with cardstock).

Stitch all the way around the perimeter.

Alice Says: Mark the center line, addressee lines and square for the stamp on the writing side. When asked why, she replies “Because that’s what you do.” I'm pretty sure the postman will deliver it without these, but DON'T tell her I said so.

When you’re using fabric as the writing side, fine tipped Sharpies or Micron pens work great without the ink bleeding.  

For the cardstock, any pen will do.

One thing we thought of: don’t use the Frixion pens we quilters love so much. On a hot day in a hot mailbox, the ink is likely to disappear before the recipient can read it.

When using card stock for the front (writing side) 
rather than fabric:

Piece and fuse the back (picture side) and quilt as usual, then add your fusible fleece.

Omit the Décor Bond for the writing side and baste or glue the cardstock to the back (picture side). Then cut everything to 4x6”. 

For cardstock, I use a zig zag stitch at a long length

and go around twice so it’s secure without perforating the cardstock too much.

Finished Product, cute, huh?

Again, draw the center line, addressee lines and stamp square,  

unless you want Alice coming after you.  She takes this very seriously.

She’s been known to chase people with brooms. (True Story)

In one resource, Quilters Rewards Postcards, the directions are the same until the end where she tells you to finish the edges with binding. ** Insert great big, “Yeah, right” here. ** Although, I always seem to have leftover binding because I make way more than I need, paranoid I’ll run out. So really, why not use it for a postcard if you’re so inclined. Let me know how it goes.

These postcards are great for birthdays, anniversaries, Valentines, thank yous, invitations, announcements for birth, weddings, moving, etc.

You can use the Printing on Fabric technique from my other post (CLICK HERE) to combine the two tutorials and get a completely custom, adorable postcard. Here is a mock-up of a birthday invitation.

 I pieced and quilted the back and printed the front with the details of the birthday party. I also printed on the center line, addressee lines and stamp square, so I wouldn't have to draw it on afterward.

 

and another of a Save the Date. This one, I printed the front with the details and the addressee information and for the back, I printed this gorgeous tree and lovebirds picture by Vivera Design onto the grey and white fabric. Easy Peasy.

 

Alice Says:  When it comes to postage, your best bet is to take it into your post office because the weight will vary for each postcard. It’s fun to see their reaction and hear them ask about what you’ve created.

United States Post Office’s 
definition of postcard-

First-Class Mail Postcards-Maximum size: 6 inches by 4 ½ inches by .016 inch thick-$0.35

First-Class Mail Stamped Large Postcards- Maximum size: 11 ½ inches by 6 1/8 inches high by ¼ inch thick- $0.49

Resources (In addition to Mom)

  Buy Quilter's Rewards Postcards on Amazon

  Buy Positively Postcards on Amazon

***I have no affiliation with these authors, Vivera Design or Amazon.com***