Part Two - Printing on Fabric

Last week I published a post that showed a pillow I made and how to print on fabric using your home printer. Today I made an item using another method of printing on fabric. This time I used a technique that is washable. I did so because the item I made is a kitchen dishtowel that would need to be washed.

I began the process by going to The Graphics Fairy and falling in love with a beautiful, autumn-like, vintage image...

I downloaded the image onto my computer and began the real work. Because the dishtowel needed to be washable, I chose to use a "print and iron-on" method. I bought these iron-on transfer sheets at Hobby Lobby for $5.99. That's $2 a sheet which is, in my opinion, is a bit pricey. Still, I wanted to try out the method, so I grabbed the sheets and nicely pitched the big bucks to the cashier.

To use an iron-on transfer, one must make a mirror image of the picture you plan to use -- especially if your image has writing on it. I use Picasa3 as my photo editor. To make a mirror image in Picasa3, hold down the Ctrl + Shift keys and then strike the "H" key. Unfortunately, Picasa3 would not allow me to save the mirrored image until I edited the picture further by cropping it or enhancing the color. After the picture was further edited, I could then save the mirrored image in that form. Go figure.

Here's the image that I originally saved in Picasa3...

And here's the cropped mirror image...

Then bring up a new Word Document and insert the saved mirror image into the document. Size the image to the desired shape and size, then print the image onto a transfer sheet using your home printer. I set my Print Quality to "best" and let 'er rip! Lickity-split you have a mirror image on your transfer sheet. At this point all you have to do is put the sheet face-side-down on your fabric and iron it on. Peal off the transfer backing sheet and here's what you have...

 

As I said before, I chose to make a dishtowel with this image. I used my favorite muslin as my fabric of choice, made a few pleats and hemmed the edges...

I love how the quarter inch pleats frame the autumn scene...

The warm, earthy texture of this muslin works well with this sepia-toned image...

Once again, my thanks goes to The Graphics Fairy for this fabulous image...

I'm going to hang this on my oven door the 1st of November 

and gaze at it (adoringly) throughout the month. 

Have a great day,

Linked to:
Saturday Soiree @ A Little Lovely
Saturday Night Specials @ Funky Junk Interiors
Show & Tell @ Be Different Act Normal 
Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots & Jello
Hookin' Up @ House of Hepworths
DIY Fall Festival @ DIY Show Off
SYS Link Party @ Somewhat Simple
Show Off Your Stuff @ Fireflies & Jellybeans
Get Your Craft On Thursday @ Life as Lori
Show & Tell @ Blue Cricket Design
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog
Anything Related @ All Thingz Related
Brag Monday @ The Graphics Fairy