Just Another Hang Up: Printed Halloween Pillow

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Printed Halloween Pillow

A couple of days ago I headed over to Graphics Fairy to have me a look-see. I love to check out holiday graphics when I visit, and yesterday I came upon a Halloween graphic that I loved. The image below is what pillows are made of -- at least at my house!

Last year I created a pumpkin pillow by printing a picture that I found at Graphics Fairy onto fabric, so I thought I would follow the same process to make another pillow with the image above.

All you need to begin the process of printing on fabric is a piece of paper (I've used regular copy paper or cardstock), some muslin fabric (cut slightly larger than the paper) and spray adhesive...

Start by ironing your fabric flat and laying it down on a hard, flat surface. Spray your paper with the adhesive, and carefully place it on the fabric -- adhesive side down. Press the paper onto the fabric, then trim your fabric edges to the exact size of the paper.

I downloaded the batty image from The Graphics Fairy onto my computer.

Then I inserted the saved image into a Word document. Below is an image from my computer screen. It shows the dimensions that I enlarged the image to so it would fit horizontally onto my 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper.

To print onto your fabric put your paper/fabric into your printer -- fabric side down (for inkjet printers). Make sure you set the 'Print Quality' to "best." Then print the image onto your cardstock/fabric.When it emerges from the printer it will look like the photo below. Kinda cute, eh?

{Just a warning: There are some tutorials in blogland that tell you to tape your fabric onto paper to print. I tried that once. For me that method didn't work well at all. When you tape the fabric to the paper, the fabric tends to shift as it goes through the printer and the image prints unevenly onto the fabric.}

Let the ink on your fabric dry for several hours, then peel off the fabric from the paper.

{Yet another warning: This method of transferring a print directly onto a piece of fabric is NOT washable. The image runs when it comes in contact with water. I would recommend this process for seasonal items that you only display for a month or two out of the year, so the need for cleaning would be diminished. Because it isn't washable, make sure all the water is drained from your iron -- don't press your seams using steam.}

Trim your fabric so there is about 1/2" on all sides of the image. I used 1/4" seams for all the seams. To make a pillow using the image as a middle panel cut two pieces of fabric 2 1/2" wide and as long as the side are (see below). Sew the middle panel to these side panels using a 1/4" seam.

Press the seams toward the side panels and topstitch the seams to the side panels 1/8" from the seam..

To make the top and bottom panels cut two more panels that are 2 1/2" wide and as long as the top and bottom measurements of the pillow. Stitch with a 1/4" seam, trim edges if necessary, press seams toward the top and bottom panels.