Laser Printing on Fabric

During lockdown I have had a little time to watch Youtube videos  and try  different crafty Techniques.  One of the things I have been experimenting with is transferring  images on to fabric.
One technique surprised  me so much I had to try it because I just didn't believe it would work.
The image above is printed on fabric using a laser printer.  You didn't mis read that,.. I did say laser printer. The quality is actually pretty good but the down side is you can only print on fabric that is the same size as the paper the printer takes  A4 in the case of my printer. 

I found a website called Graphics Fairy  they have a range of vintage images  that you can print off  free of charge. There are some lovely vintage labels,  French adverts and French script  that you  can either print on paper or fabric. The lady that owns the site also has a how to section which I found very useful as I tried a couple of techniques.  You can  also download the images in reverse if you want to use them using freezer paper or transfer paper.  

The first image was printed directly onto the fabric. I cut a piece of fabric A4  the same size as a sheet of paper and adhered the fabric to the paper with double sided tape around the edges making sure there were no stray threads hanging off the fabric that might get caught in the printer. I was very nervous about sending fabric through my new printer but it went through beautifully. So I tried a couple more  and one caused a slight jam on the last inch but easily sorted.

 I decided to try Reynolds Freezer paper  as a transfer paper. I cut a piece of freezer paper to A4 size and adhered it to a sheet of printer  paper.    I chose the reversed image and then hit print.  (Print on the shiny side of the freezer paper)

The next step was to transfer the image to fabric by ironing the back of the freezer paper   to transfer it t0 the fabric. 
Well this worked too, but the colours were muted and  had a  distressed looked.  Especially the pink rose.  So I was rather disappointed with the way this one turned out.
 I  printed the French script on to fabric this time using my cheap black Samsung laser printer  this worked well too. 
In fact  I think the script came out better on the cheaper printer but it did need a little longer for the toner to set.   I ironed  the fabric on the reverse side to heat set the toner, as I  had noticed a  small smudge where I had handled the fabric while  removing it from  paper.

Next step was to print off the same script in reverse onto freezer paper, using the Samsung printer and ironing  it onto the fabric.
That worked well and there was very little difference between that and printing directly onto the fabric.

The next experiment  was to  hand wash all the pieces of fabric and see what happened.  If there was any colour loss it was hardly noticeable. Not sure I would risk putting them in the washing machine though.

 I have to say,  I am really impressed with printing directly onto the fabric, the only down side is the largest  size you can print is an A4 panel, so you wont be shoving your T shirts in the printer.

 I found  a tube of image maker in the cupboard so I thought I'd give that a try too.

This is a thick cream you smear thickly over an image that has been printed in reverse ,  then you place the creamy side  onto the fabric you want to transfer the image to.

 I tried  transferring the same rose image so I could compare the finished piece with the printed pieces.
I also transferred a couple of photos onto fabric.

This method is not only messy, It's  time consuming  and  rubbing the  wet paper off is a nightmare.  Just when you think you have got it all off and worn your fingers to the bone in the process the fabric dries  to reveal there is still a tonne of paper fibres stuck to the image and you have to start wetting and rubbing all over again. But rub too hard and you risk rubbing some of the image away.

  One thing the instructions on the  packaging  didn't say is to make sure you cover your image right up  to the edge of your paper . I didn't on my first attempt and the edges ended up very messy and the fabric felt like stiff card when dry.

 My second attempt turned out much neater, as I made sure I covered the paper with cream right up to the edges. But even after several  long bouts of wetting and rubbing there is still a lot of paper fibres stuck to the images clouding the colours and details in these photos.
 I have spent so long working on these I have now given up on ever getting all the fibres off.