The door in the background leads into my little sun room/studio and laundry room (or out to the garden), as you can see it's had quite a bit of use over the years and like my garden it's not perfect looking, but I like it that way.
There are times when I've sat with my head hanging low and pitying myself because I'm not Mrs. Cleaver, but this summer I feel I've grown to love love who I am in-spite of all my quirky characteristics. One of which shows itself quite regular and that's the love of or should I say obsession with making things myself. Friends and family find it amusing that I can't even allow myself to buy a simple handbag at the store because I would rather make one myself. I mean really where is the fun of buying something someone else has, I want something unique!
That being said I guess I should share my new obsession of fabric transfers with you (thanks mom) I really needed another obsession, LOL! And because of this I've found a new medium I just love, fabric art! I've been mixing my fabric transfer photos with my found objects, vintage lace and buttons and viola ~ a mixed media handbag! I still need to add straps to this one, almost done and then onto starting several more the possibilities are endless!!!
Here's how to make your own photo transfers using your printer.
The first technique I've tried was very easy and all it takes is a printer, freezer paper (not wax paper), an iron, light weight muslin fabric and a photo to print.
1. I started by ironing my light weight muslin and then cut the muslin to 8 x10". If the fabric isn't completely smooth you might end up with an inky mess so iron it together making it as smooth as possible.
2. Now unroll a piece of the freezer paper and place shiny side down on top of muslin and iron it together.Once the two are ironed together trim the paper to fit the 8 x 10" piece of muslin.
I use an Epson printer, now I can't say for sure, but I'm think just about any ink jet printer would work for this project.
3. Next I used the feed button on my printer, and most printers have one of these so I suggest you first feed this through the printer first to make sure it won't get caught while printing. If nothing gets caught up you're ready for printing.
4. Now for a test run. Pick a photo, illustration or even some clever words or phrases like "laugh" or "life's a journey" and press print. Once you have printed something onto the muslin , separate the paper from the fabric and cut to size (leave room for your stitching).
There are so many possibilities here, I just love it. Oh, I need to tell you some printer ink is not smear proof and with my regular Epson printer ink it's not water proof, so I will be ordering Dura Brite ink cartridges really soon just for these reasons. I am trying another way to keep ink from smearing right now, by lightly spraying the printed fabric with lacquer clear finish. And you can buy flat freezer paper cut to size off the internet (maybe Dharma Trading), not sure I'll have to look it up. Happy Transferring!!
