Posted by Sassy at August 21st, 2005
Now that I need to go into full production mode for the Craft-o-rama, I’ve been researching good ways to do image transfers onto fabric. I’ve got some great 1937 Liberty magazines (some of the covers can be seen here) and I would love to use the graphics on purses or totes.
I’ve been looking for a method that is fairly inexpensive, fairly non-toxic, and will look and feel as though it is part of the final fabric (as opposed to looking like a rubbery iron-on). Washability would be a plus, though it’s of a lower priority since the final product will probably have plenty of other elements that are not washable. I want to do color images, and I have an inkjet printer.
Thimble discusses some techniques here and here, and also linked to this page of tutorials. So, after reading through it all, and with my brain spinning and fizzing, off I went to shop. At my local Joann I found yet another method to try in addition to the ones listed. So… here is my attempt to compare, contrast, and document the various methods.
Step 1: Ready the materials. I got some plain white cotton fabric and laundered it. Also choose an image. For me, this was pretty easy — I had the Liberty magazine cover I wanted to use.
The not-so-easy part was cropping it down using Photoshop, so Step 1 also includes swearing at the computer, swearing at Sorcha when she tries to help, and then swearing at the color printer when it refuses to print nicely. Step 1h involves removing the ink jet cartridge a few times and cleaning it. 1q is to very nearly give up, weigh the options of a good stiff drink vs. driving to local copy center, then ultimately doing neither and switching from the big fancy printer/copier to a smaller cheesier printer and finally getting decent results. When printed, the image is about 3″ across:
The Methods: (drumroll, please)
1) Blender pen. Despite knowing my way around an art store fairly well, I had no idea what one of these was. I asked the nice person at my local art place, and she pointed me toward a Prismacolor blender pen in with the fancy markers. I purchased it for $1.98. Thimble’s tutorial mentioned copies or laser printouts of the image, and this tutorial mentions photocopies, so part of this experiment was to find out whether a color inkjet printout would work.
Results: Not even enough of an image to be able to photograph. I felt like I was burnishing the hell out of the thing, but only got some faint streaks. I tried with text printed in black ink, with the same results. Then I fished various photocopies and other papers out of recycling and tried that. Nothin’. Maybe it’s my blender pen brand?
Verdict: Well, a tiny investment anyhow, and I’ll experiment with using the blender pen for its intended purpose instead. If anyone ever enlightens me as to its intended purpose, that is. Oh, and the smell is chemical-y but not so bad. Then again, the cat took a while before she regained consciousness (not entirely a bad thing).
2) PrintWorks brand t-shirt transfers. I purchased these at Target for $7.99 for 6 sheets. According to the package, there’s a “premium” version for best photo reproduction, but I didn’t see those at the store. Also according to the package, the “new transfer technology” gives a “softer, natural feel”. We shall find out….
Results: This was a fairly lengthy & involved process as the ink had to dry for half an hour before ironing the image to the fabric. Then the ironing had to be done for two minutes on a hard surface — I felt as though I was burnishing with the iron.
Verdict: Results were vivid, but I wouldn’t exactly call it “soft” or “natural” — definitely rubbery.
3) Pellon Wonder Under Regular Weight Paper-backed Fusible Web. I found this at Joann for $4.99 for 2 yards (17″ wide). The package says the resulting fabric maintains a soft hand after fusing. The intended use is to bond two fabrics together, as an applique. However, this tutorial says you can just feed it through your inkjet printer and print directly on to it, and that the resulting fabric feels like suede. (It amazes me what people are willing to feed through their printers!)
Note: I also found another brand of what appears to be similar stuff — HTCW Trans-Web, “The Easiest Way to Transform Ordinary Fabrics into Iron-On Fabrics.” It was $4.99 for less than half the size of the Wonder Under — 16″ by 36″. According to the labels, both are 100% polyamide on a paper backing. Since they appear to be pretty much the same, I didn’t test the HTCW in the Great Image Transfer Experiment.
Results: Since it comes in a very big sheet, I had to verrry carefully trim a piece to 8.5 x 11. Despite some threatening noises from my printer, it pulled through just fine. The image original looked a lot more faded than the PrintWorks transfer. I managed to smudge it a little despite my efforts not to touch it until it had a chance to dry. Of course, a certain someone couldn’t resist the temptation to see if it was dry yet…
Since the tutorial didn’t give much information in the way of the actual ironing-on process, I followed the package directions and winged it when they didn’t apply (i.e., the package directions were to adhere 2 fabric layers). First I put the image side down on the fabric, then covered it all with another cloth, misted that with water, and ironed. Once I tried to remove the paper backing, it stuck fairly firmly to the image and a lot of the color seemed to peel away with the paper.
So I also tried an experiment — since the sticky stuff was easy to separate from the backing prior to ironing, I did another try where I did one layer as above and then added a second layer by peeling off the paper, carefully lining up the 2nd image over the first, covering the whole thing with a layer of parchment paper, and then ironing. This resulted in softer edges but more vivid colors. In the next photo, you can see the doubled-up image on the left, the single image in the middle, and the PrintWorks iron-on on the right.
Verdict: With the resulting image being semi-transparent and ethereal-looking, I can see using this technique for layering or fabric collage, or maybe for other uses where a faded image is desired. Also, rather than feeling like leather, I think the final product just feels like there’s old glue stuck to the fabric, and it’s got a bit of a shine too.
4) Blumenthal Craft Crafter’s Images PhotoFabric: Paper-backed fabric for use with inkjet printers. Yes, this is actually fabric you feed right through your printer, much like in this freezer paper technique. I bought it at Joann for $12.99 for a package of 6 sheets. Joann carried 3 different weights/fabrics: cotton poplin, canvas, or silk. After much debate, I chose the poplin and canvas but not the silk, due to the high price and my intended use in totes/purses.
Results: This fed through my printer just fine, and the colors were vivid. After printing, you let the image dry, iron it, and then peel off the paper backing. The paper came off easily from the canvas, but was pretty stubborn on the poplin and I had to peel little bits of it off. The directions then say to rinse the fabric “until the water runs clear”. The rinse helped get the last bits of paper off the poplin, but the water was clear from the start. I thought I might see some inks running, and it did look as though my fingers got a little ink on them, but the image on the fabric seemed fine. Finally I ironed the damp fabrics until they were dry. As an experiment, I put some white cotton over the damp image and ironed it to see if any ink came off, but none did.
The fabrics are unhemmed, of course, so there were some stray threads even when I first pulled the fabric out of the package. I pulled these off so they wouldn’t wind up in the printer.
Verdict: This is the clear winner — the only method I tried where the fabric surface wasn’t altered by the technique. The canvas (pictured below on the left) was a little too coarse for this size image, but the poplin (right) is perfect. And it required less fussing around than the iron-on transfer.
It’s essentially the same process as the freezer paper tutorial, but without messing around with fusing the freezer paper to the fabric. On the other hand, using freezer paper would be much less expensive and would allow you to use whatever fabric you wanted, instead of being limited to the kinds offered. I did happen to pick up some freezer paper on my shopping trip today… but that will have to wait for the Great Image Transfer Experiment Part Deux!
If you’re interested, more photos of the results can be seen here.
