Transferring Images to Fabric

There are a number of ways this can be done.

Photos can be edited on the computer and then printed on to sheets of cotton, linen, silk and organza backed with peel-off paper.

Images can be already on the computer, for example family and holiday photo.  But also other types of images can be scanned in as these artist's sketches of fairies were.

Fabric sheets are commercially available through web sites such as www.craftycomputerpaper.com and Rainbow Silks.  They are supplied singly or in packs of 50 and come in various sizes such as A4 and A3. These commercial sheets are treated in different ways.  Some have a washable finish, some have an adhesive so they can be stuck to a surface instead of being sewn on.

Then there is a product called Transfer Artists Paper (or TAP).  These were invented by a lady called Lesley Riley who has written books about how to use these sheets as well as a DVD demonstrating how to use them in making memory quilts.

The TAP has a special finish on one side that takes a printed or drawn images and once ironed with a hot dry iron transfers the image to the cotton fabric. Once the image is transferred and iron-fixed it can be washed.

For people with the ability to draw or paint the TAP is a lovely way to put your own artistic creation on to fabric.


A third option is to cut pieces of freezer paper to the size your printer can handle and iron these on to your own fabric making sure that the edges line up exactly and there are no loose threads to annoy the printer. This works well with silk and lightweight cottons. Here a piece of A4 paper is used to get the right size of freezer paper and then some fabric will be cut to the same shape and size and ironed to the waxy side before being fed through the printer.

These images are on a commercially available cotton or silk sheets which have had the backing peeled off ready to be sewn to a block for a quilt or to a cloth page for a Fabric Art Journal.

If your inkjet printer uses pigment ink there is no need to prepare the fabric in any special way.  Most printers do use pigment ink these days.  If you should have an old printer that has inks that dye the fabric then there is a product called Bubble Jet Set designed to prepare fabrics for printing so that the article with the image can be washed and will not fade.  However with modern inkjet printers and with commercially available fabric sheets it is unlikely you will need to bother with this type of preparation.

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