Baby Noodle: Inkjet Printing on Fabric

I've tried many different ways to print on fabric to make homemade tshirts and other gifts. But most of the premade iron on transfers and fabric sheets that I've used seem to turn out with an unnatural rough texture. I have been able to make some fun tshirts with those products, but I think I found a way to print on fabric using freezer paper that ends up with a better result. The great thing about this technique is that you can use just about any cotton fabric that you want (as long as the thickness will fit in your printer). You can use an old tshirt you have at home or fabric bought from your local fabric store.

Here's how I made the printed fabric square for Neve's "I Love Grandpa" onesie.

First, find an old tshirt or other fabric that you want to print on and grab some freezer paper from the grocery store or amazon.

Ultimately, what you're going to do is attach the freezer paper to the fabric and then cut it to fit in your inkjet printer (assuming you don't have a large format printer, that's going to be letter size - 8.5" x 11").

First, cut the fabric about an inch bigger than the size that your printer takes. For my project, I cut a rectangle of fabric out of an old tshirt that was about 9.5" x 12". Next, cut a piece of freezer paper that is just slightly smaller than that. Now, take the side of the fabric that you want the printed image on and lay that side down on an ironing board or other surface to iron on. Take the freezer paper, plastic coated side down, and lay it on the fabric. The plastic coated side of the freezer paper will be against the opposite side of the fabric that you want to print on. Iron the two pieces together. It may take a couple of minutes to get them to stick.

Next, take some scissors and cut the fabric/freezer paper to exactly 8.5" x 11". An easy way to do this is to grab a sheet of printer paper and trace around it on the fabric.

Now print! I've tried both the normal paper printer setting and the matte photo paper setting. I recommend the matte photo paper setting, as the ink seems to soak in just a little better and show more detail.

You have just printed directly on the fabric! Let the fabric dry, cut your design out and peel off the freezer paper backing. You now have a piece of fabric to make all kinds of fun gifts with.

(NOTE: If you want to create a colorfast piece of fabric that you can feel safe washing, you need to use a product like "Bubble Jet Set 2000" - It's a solution that you soak your fabric in before you follow the above steps.)

For Neve's "I Love Grandpa" onesie, I cut out the other pieces of fabric that I wanted to use and laid out my design.