Monday, October 17, 2011

Freezer Paper Printing Tutorial

How do you print on fabric??  I assumed that as soon as I posted this picture of my name tag for the Sewing Summit that I would get people writing me that exact question.  And since I figured that question would come up, I actually remembered to take pictures of the process while I was making this name tag :)  Yippee Skippee!!  So without further ado . . . I give you the Freezer Paper Printing Tutorial.


Start by cutting an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of freezer paper and a  8 1/2" x 11" piece of fabric that you want to print on.  (It is probably best to use light colors here as I don't know how well the printing would show up on dark colors ;)  

Lay the freezer paper onto the fabric with the shiny side down (you know, the side that feels more slippery and less like paper.)      Press your little freezer paper sandwich.  It only takes a few seconds to adhere the freezer paper to the fabric.

Now just leave the freezer paper adhered to the fabric.  See how it is stiff now.  You can now feed it into the paper tray of your printer and it is ready to be printed on.  It just feeds through as one sheet :)

So get your desired design that you want to print all ready on your computer.  I like to put a box around whatever I am printing as it makes it easier to cut it out :)

When your design is all done you are ready to print.  In your printing advanced options you should be able to change the intensity of your printing.  I like to make the intensity darker since the printing on the material is not normally as dark as paper.

Once the design has printed give it a few seconds to make sure it is dry so it doesn't smear.  Then just peel the fabric away from the freezer paper.  (It will just come right off :)

Cut out your design.  Now just heat set your printed piece.  (note . . heat setting will help to prevent the ink from running in the case that it gets wet, however, this is not a perfect water-proof process.  Certain ink colors and inks can still run even after being heat set.  So if you are wanting to do this in something that will need to be washed I would suggest experimenting with the colors first before sewing it into something :)

Now just take your printed design and sew it into your project!!  Wha-La!!  Easy and affordable Printing on Fabric :)  Enjoy!!!

*** EDIT***  There were some wonderful tips left in the comments so I wanted to add them to make sure everyone saw them.  Thanks to Jessica Jo and NancyinSTL for their wonderful helps!!

1 - The freezer paper can be used many many many times over!
2 - This is a good way to transfer embroidery designs, as long as they are small enough to fit through your machine.
3 - Choose fabric with a high thread count to ensure better printing.
4 - Treat the fabric first with Bubble Jet to make it colorfast.
5 - Cut fabric and paper slightly larger than 8.5" x 11" just before ironing the fabric to the freezer paper, then cut the fabric stuck to the freezer paper to 8.5" x 11". This will help prevent the fabric from peeling back and jamming up in the printer.

Pin It!

32 comments:

  1. This is great Melissa, thanks for posting it. Will it work on a laser printer too, you think?
    It's a regular BW laser printer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great idea! I pinned it here: http://pinterest.com/iftoyscouldtalk/fun-ideas-and-tutorials/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Excellent tips. Thanks for sharing. BTW, I am loving my Slice as per your posts.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I did this for the tags on my handspun yarn this year at the market. Another tip: the freezer paper can be used many many many times over! I used 1 sheet at least 10 times! And it's still strong enough and wanting more. Also, it's a good way to transfer embroidery designs, as long as they are small enough to fit through your machine. Thanks for posting this! It's another thing I think more people should know about, just because it's such a time saver. It has kept my head from exploding SEVERAL times.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Melissa,
    thank you for showing us that it is a pice of cake to print on fabric. Some day I´ll try ☺

    ReplyDelete
  6. A few tips from my experience!
    1. Choose fabric with a high thread count to ensure better printing.
    2. Treat the fabric first with Bubble Jet to make it colorfast.
    3. Cut fabric and paper slightly larger than 8.5" x 11" just before ironing the fabric to the freezer paper, then cut the fabric stuck to the freezer paper to 8.5" x 11". This will help prevent the fabric from peeling back and jamming up in the printer.

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is a great process. Ive done it for quilt labels and it works great. Nice crisp printing and Ive even thrown them in the wash and never had a problem.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Does this only work on an ink jet printer?

    Thanks for a great tutorial.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great tip, Melissa! Thanks for posting it!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks for the wonderful tutorial Melissa!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I would like to appreciate you the way you have shared the post with us. It is really hard to find the quality post, but you have done this job nicely man.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That is a great idea for quilt labels. Does it work on printing photos onto fabric also?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I've done it many times. I made photo quilts for our parents 50th anniversaries.

      Delete
  13. I so so computer un-savy. How do you get the beautiful fonts? I want to make labels for myself but have not idea where to go to get designs and fonts. Everything is so plain jane on my computer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just go out and Google "Free Fonts" you'll find hundreds of them and just download to a file on your computer. I just fiinished downloading over 400 fonts! I must be OCD ;-) Have fun! Halle'

      Delete
  14. Beach Angel,

    This font isn't in your basic computer program. It was done for me by my friend who does computer graphics. She designs all kinds of buttons and such for blogs. You can find her info here.

    http://houseofhenrie.blogspot.com/p/im-making-web-cute.html

    ReplyDelete
  15. What is Bubble Jet? Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yes, what is bubble jet? Thanks for the posting the tut, another of those things I didn't know how to do easily.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I have tried this and was very pleased with the results, but it did wash out when hand washed,so I use the iron on sheets for T shirts on a quilt that I know will be washed often' I also make a duplicate of the label to put in my scrapbook with a picture of the quilt,

    ReplyDelete
  18. Google bubble jet and they offer it at http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3446-AA.shtml Looks pretty straight forward to use.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Melissa,
    I LOVE this! I've been looking for a tutorial on how to print your own labels. You're a lifesaver and I love your font and how you designed your label. Looks beautiful! Thank you again for a wonderful, very informative tutorial! Keep em coming girl!
    An Admirer
    Halle'
    Spring, TX

    ReplyDelete
  20. My daughter-in-law sent me the link to this tutorial. I've been making a Family Tree Quilt and want to hand embroider the names on it. I can't find any tutorials or anything that tells you how to do names/fonts hand embroidering. I have a font I love that I think would look great on the quilt but trying to trace each letter is a pain. This should work great. Once I figured out that the ink needs to bleed through the fabric onto the freezer paper's sticky side I thought I was all set. Then I realized it prints exactly what it sees, so when you go to iron it onto your fabric for a transfer, it's backwards. I've spent the day trying to figure out how to make may text a mirror image and print onto the paper correctly... only to realize my printer is a laser printer. I've pulled out the old inkjet and once it's hooked up I'll try again! This is such a wonderful idea, if I can get it to work I think it's one I'll be doing a lot!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Judy, if it still doesn't work, try saving the words you want as a picture. Then you can open it in a picture program and reverse the writing.

      Delete
  21. Great idea, I noticed a few people asking how to design them, I do design, so if anyone wants me to create their own personalised design, I will be more than happy to help out. You can contact me at creativecardstudios@gmail.com

    I am not always at my computer, but I will get back to you as soon as humanly possible.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Thank you very much for this tutorial ! Easy to follow.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Perfect !! Thank you so much!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your sweet comments. I just love hearing from you!!
Have a Happy Quilting Day :)

Melissa