How to Print Directly on Fabric

It seems like there are a hundred ideas out there for transferring images onto fabric - CitraSolv being the most popular. But call me dumb, call me small town girl......but I can't find CitraSolv anywhere. I guess I could order it from Amazon. But I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl and when I want to do something, I want to do it today not next week. So when I saw a tutorial on The Graphics Fairy, I knew  this might be the answer I was looking for.

I had this vintage wicker basket (two actually) that I found on the side of the road one morning last summer. It's huge - perfect for laundry or to store cushions and throw blankets in as we do. I put one in the booth and it didn't sell. Perhaps it needed some extra loving.

BEFORE

Out came the ASCP in Pure White. I dry brushed the entire surface inside and out, leaving some of the wicker colour showing. Then I took some antique oil in walnut and lightly rubbed it into the wicker - this gave it some depth. I let that dry and set about transferring an image onto a piece of drop cloth canvas. Here's how:

You'll need fabric, a printer (mine's an inkjet), paper, scissors and spray adhesive.

Step 1: Cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than your 8 1/2" x 11" paper. Iron the fabric if it's wrinkly at all.

Step 2: Take a piece of paper or card stock (I used paper for this) and spray it lightly with the adhesive. If you've ever worked with this stuff, you'll know to do it in a well ventilated area.

Step 3: Carefully place the paper (adhesive side down) onto the fabric and press to securely adhere the paper.

source - The Graphics Fairy

Step 4: Trim the fabric to the edges of the paper - be sure you don't leave any excess fabric that could get stuck in the printer.

source - The Graphics Fairy

Step 5: Following your printers instructions, place the paper either fabric side up or down in the feed tray of the printer. Every machine is different, mine was fabric side down so that the image was printed directly onto the fabric.

Step 6: Print your image. Let it sit for a couple of minutes just to make sure the ink has dried. Then peel the paper away from the image. 

You're now ready to affix your image onto anything you want. I used good old fashioned Elmer's glue to secure the fabric to the basket. I pressed really firmly as I wanted the ridges of the wicker to show through the fabric. 

I also kept the edges of the fabric raw as I wanted that unfinished look to the piece. But you could easily hem the fabric for a neater more finished look. I would suggest that you do that AFTER you print the image onto the fabric. I don't know how the extra bulk of the turned in hems would work on your printer. I know mine would bung up and I would be cursing the technology gods.....something I do daily it seems.

Don't know how water soluble this would be for anything that needed washing. Best to stick to ornamental objects for this method, I think. Has anyone tried this method on anything that needs washing?