Here’s the short story for you skimmers: Freezer paper + fabric + inkjet printer = banner.
And now for the slightly longer version: When thinking of how to make a banner for my brother’s wedding, I contemplated the freezer paper stencil method which I have used before (seen here, forgive the bad photos) with some success. The idea of cutting out intricate letters wasn’t thrilling me though. Suddenly I remembered reading that you can use freezer paper to stiffen fabric enough to feed through an inkjet printer so you can print directly on the fabric. I was skeptical but I had a bit of freezer paper lying around and a designer to help execute the idea (he wasn’t lying around mind you, but kindly offered to help with the type. Thanks, hon!).
All you do – and it’s really deceptively simple – is iron the glossy side of the freezer paper onto the wrong side of the fabric and then cut it down to fit in the printer (8.5″ x 11″). Then just print on the fabric side, and peel the paper off.
This example (above) shows the heart with the backing on the left, and the same heart sans freezer paper on the right. I love how pulling the backing off pulls at the threads and warps it ever so slightly.
For the banner part, I cut the letters down to the same size and folded and sewed over the tops to make a pocket for the twine. The whole project – from start to finish, from layout to threading the letters onto the twine – took less than an hour. Easiest banner ever.
I recommend checking out this instructable, which goes over the process in better detail and discusses what to do to make the fabric washable.
Printing on Fabric, the Lazy Way
10 responses to “Printing on Fabric, the Lazy Way”
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this is awesome — it looks so good! i’ll keep it in mind for future parties
I just learned a ton from this post. I had never heard of freezer paper, let alone what you can do with it. I want to try printing my own banner though! Thanks for the walk through!
Awesome! Can’t believe it could be so simple. Thanks
What kind of fabric did you use? Does it have to be thick?
I just used a bit of lightweight cotton that I had, but I’m not sure exactly what it was. A commenter over at the instructable I mentioned recommends natural, woven lightweight fabrics like cotton, linen and muslin.
I love this, I need to make one of these for my mom’s birthday!
I never would have thought of this. My, but I love the internet and the blogging world for all the terrific ideas everyone has!
This is a really good idea!! I’m going to try this–for once I have a decent printer to use and I’ve been doing a lot of things that use printable inkjet fabric. The clutches I’ve made with this fabric have come out AWESOME, but the fabric is $25 for a small roll! Ay!
Hello! How did you get your banner to look like that?? Is it a specific font??
Super cute!
Thanks,
Sara pea
Thanks, Sara Pea!
It’s not a specific font, but the work of my husband in Adobe Illustrator. The base font is Gotham, but he added the lines. It’s so handy having a designer around!
Sorry it’s not available anywhere. Have you checked out http://www.dafont.com/ ? You might find something similar.