Printing on Fabric

Recently, there's been a lot of excitement about direct printing on fabric using a new product, Bubble Jet Set. I purchased a bottle from Dharma Trading; cost was $12.95 + shipping/handling, for a total of $21.62.

First, I cut the fabric into 11" wide strips. Then following manufacturer's directions, I pretreated the fabric for 5 min. and hung it to dry. After the fabric was dry, I cut it into 8 1/2" pieces, cut freezer paper the same size and fused fabric to paper. From one bottle, I was able to treat approximately sixty 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of fabric for the printer.

Now, I just pop the fused fabric/paper into the printer and printed full pages of photos, making sure each photo has at least 1/4" space all around for seam allowance. For the most color-fastness, wait at least 24 hours before washing. I further treated the fabric with Dharma Dye Fixative, though this step isn't absolutely necessary. The hand of the fabric is just as if you'd done nothing to it and best of all, the images are perfect! I even cheated on some signature blocks for my guild's exchange. I scanned in my signature also, so even that was printed!

    

This page updated October 14, 1999