Printing on Fabric – Silhouettes

September 27, 2011 by · 13 Comments
Share
So I am still ready for Christmas! I know.. it was just the first day of fall, but I long for cold days, apple cider, heavy blankets. It’s always a 50/50 here that I will get to do some of those things. I live in Texas.. the other 50% could result in an 80 degree Christmas. : )
I have a particular Christmas project that I am really excited about, but I can’t tell you what it is yet. The first thing I showed you was how to make the digital silhouette. If you missed that tutorial you can find it HERE. Because now I am going to show you how to print them out on fabric. The next tutorial will be for my final project, I promise : )
So here we go. I just printed on some muslin because I haven’t quite figured out exactly what fabric I want to print on.

Aren’t those little faces adorable?! I am thinking I need to put my daughter’s hair in her pebbles pony tail and then do it! : )
 
Supplies
- At least 8.5 x 11 pieces of a light colored solid fabric
- Freezer paper
-Iron and ironing board
-scissors
-printer (I’m told you need ink jet, but I have a laser printer and it works for me without any problems… but I can’t tell you to use a laser printer because I would hate to be responsible for your husband saying “you put WHAT in the printer?!?!” so use laser printers at your own risk : )
-my tutorial on how to make a digital silhouette HERE (this is what you will be printing on the fabric)


{Tutorial}
First: 
You will need to make the silhouettes of your children or whoever you are doing this for following my TUTORIAL for digital silhouettes. Once you make these you need to save them as PNG files, not jpg.

Second:
Insert the photos into microsoft word and size it up the way you want. You can also add text at this time if you wish to have any. Save your final project once it is the way you want it to be printed on the fabric.

Third:

Now we are going to prepare our fabric to be printed on. If you’ve never used freezer paper to send things through the printer this is where it might sound a little odd to you. But it works and it is awesome! You are going to cut out a piece of the freezer paper measured exactly 8.5″ x 11″.

 

Now you are going to take your fabric and put the ‘right’ side down or the “pretty side” then place the freezer paper you cut and put it shiny side down onto the ‘wrong’ side of your fabric.

Take your iron and iron the paper, this will adhere the freezer paper to the back of your fabric. It won’t be super sticky or anything but it shouldn’t fall off! (If for some reason it won’t adhere correctly try ironing the fabric before laying the freezer paper on the fabric, using steam).

 

Now cut out your fabric around the edge of your freezer paper giving you an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of fabric and freezer paper.

Fourth:
Now it’s time for the fun part! Bring up the picture you are going to print on your fabric.
You are going to put your fabric attached to freezer paper in your printer just as though it is a piece of paper. If you have a manual feed slot, this is easiest! please don’t do this if you are scared of messing up your printer. I really don’t want to feel guilty and you to have a broken printer… but people do do this all the time… your choice : )

Once the fabric is in place, hit PRINT. Watch it go through and then you will have your adorable children’s silhouettes printed on fabric and you can do with it what you please! : )


Obviously you can print anything, not just silhouettes, you just get to skip the step of making the silhouette!

So now that you have your silhouette printed on your fabric you can do whatever you like with it, you’ll have to check back to my BLOG to see what I’ll be doing with mine : ) : ) : )
Here is a little hint for you:
It involves – wood, decoupage, and it’s NOT an ornament and it does NOT hang on the wall
can you guess what it is?
Filed Under: crafts, tutorials ·
About Ashley

I am a stay at home mom who loves to do all things crafty and DIY. I have a serious addiction to coffee and would love for you to stay a while and drink a cup with me!

Comments

  1. Tina says:
    September 28, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    I just printed on fabric yesterday. I actually just taped the fabric onto a sheet of paper. It worked just fine. My boyfriend thought I was a little looney though.

    Reply
  2. Lauren says:
    September 28, 2011 at 5:29 pm

    Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute? You can print directly onto freezer paper? And it acts as a transfer?!?!?!?!?! Blowing my mind right here.

    Reply
  3. Geneva says:
    September 29, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    Thank You for such a thorough tutorial… I've been wondering how to print on fabric successfully!

    Reply
  4. famr_4evr says:
    September 30, 2011 at 12:23 am

    I have got to try this!! So, how do you think it would do to cut with my silhouette using freezer paper? The iron on stuff is so expensive.

    Reply
  5. Kelly @ Run With Glitter says:
    September 30, 2011 at 2:28 am

    So Excited!! your live @ my house!!!http://runwithglitter.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-cherished-bliss.html

    Reply
  6. Cherished Bliss says:
    September 30, 2011 at 3:42 am

    Famr_4evr – I'm not really sure. I've never used a silhouette… but I don't see why it wouldn't work though. Don't take my advice though, I have a tendency to break things : )

    Reply
  7. Candace @ Candace Creations says:
    October 1, 2011 at 5:46 am

    Love this! Come link up to scrappy saturdays over at candacecreations.blogspot.com I'd love to see you there!

    Candace

    Reply
  8. Chef in Training says:
    October 3, 2011 at 10:04 pm

    love this! Thanks so much for linking up to Tuesday Talent Show! I would love to have you stop by and link up again tomorrow with more great projects!
    -Nikki
    http://chef-n-training.blogspot.com/

    Reply
  9. Marie says:
    October 6, 2011 at 3:03 am

    Great tutorial! Thanks so much for linking up with us at Show & Share! Hope you’re joining us again this week!
    http://mylilpinkpocket.blogspot.com/2011/10/show-share-8.html

    Marie
    Mylilpinkpocket.blogspot.com

    Reply
  10. pkae says:
    February 4, 2012 at 6:00 am

    I LOVE the simplicity!! I have an ink jet and the books always say you must use a toner copy to transfer. Altho I own many books that SAY to use their pics & ideas, our local Office Max won't let me copy from them. So I've been doing my fabric work using "the expensive stuff" which is also way too stiff for my needs.
    I have read about freezer paper transfer but either there were few, poor or no instructions so I'm super excited to try this extremely clear and well written tut!! Thanks so very much for sharing!

    Reply
  11. Jenny says:
    August 17, 2012 at 10:51 pm

    Fabulous – I will definitely be giving this a try!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Photoshop Elements Silhouette {tutorial} - Cherished Bliss says:
    October 16, 2012 at 9:38 am

    [...] out these other posts using this digital silhouette: Printing on Fabric Christmas 2011 Mantel You may also like -Back to School ChalkboardDIY Dessert StandPrinting on [...]

    Reply

Speak Your Mind

*

CommentLuv badge