How to Print Drawings on Cotton Fabric

It’s great to be able to make a digital drawing! ‘But what if you want to have it printed on fabric? I’m excited to share my new discovery – how to print drawings on Cotton Fabric at home.

Why do you want to print on Fabric?

Since there are such great ways to be able to draw and make art with devices like an iPad or tablet we look for ways to take it further. Once the image is applied to fabric it opens more options to be even more creative. Hopefully these instructions will help you make something new.

There are ‘print on demand’ services where you can upload your digital images and have them printed onto a variety of things like fabric, clothing, even household items. I tested one of these; Spoonflower and the results were quite impressive.

Since I am always trying to accomplish things in a quicker, more inexpensive way I wanted to use my own home printer for this printing process; a black & white laser printer (letter/legal size paper)

The Challenge of Fabric in a printer:

I have a long history in the graphics arts. Computers did not exist and photocopiers were not as great as today, colour copies were just developing when I was studying art. As an illustrator it was always a challenge to reproduce any of my work. (see video below)

In this method; ‘How to print drawings on cotton fabric at home’ a basic home printer pulls printer paper through and prints with either a water-based type of ink (ink jet printer) or a heat set ink that comes in the form of toner powder in a laser printer. The problem is how to have the piece of fabric make it through the printer and remain flat.

How to adhere the Fabric:

It is a common suggestion that fabric can be ironed onto a waxy surface; (freezer paper method) to allow it to run through the printer. Nowadays freezer paper is very difficult to find so I wanted an easy alternative for this fabric printing method.

Double-sided tape is available everywhere and is very inexpensive. Since I would not be covering the entire sheet I placed the tape at the top, middle and bottom sections of the paper. Peel the wax paper strip off. Spray adhesive could be a viable alternative but let me forewarn you; it is really messy to work with as any overspray will make your place STICKY!

Adhere this sheet onto your fabric. To make sure the fabric is as flat as possible give it a good ironing. I used unbleached cotton muslin fabric. The weave should be quite fine to have a very crisp print but you could experiment for various affects.

The heating element in a laser printer can be as high as 400ºF (200ºC). For that reason I would suggest to use natural fibres like cotton, linen, hemp, denim, etc. Polyester will melt at about 480ºF so avoid 100% polyester fabrics.

Trimming the sheet:

To make sure the page travels through the printer with ease trim closely to the paper edge. Use a rotary cutter to allow the cleanest straight cut, (no loose threads) and an edge guide rather than scissors.

Printing the fabric;

Take note of which side your printer prints onto in order to position the fabric side properly. In my case the paper runs through and prints on the upper side (underside once through) My printer settings were a simple black print on legal size paper (8.5″ x 14″)

I have used special printable fabric sheets in my inkjet printer so I know it would work similarly. The ink does need some time to dry and may be more susceptible to water damage than laser prints. This tutorial is meant for decorative use but I have seen that some have had good results for washability.

The fabric sheet does peel off the tape on the backing paper pretty easily and it retains enough of the stickiness to be able to be used as a carrier sheet again. A small amount excess ink did go through the fabric but that did not affect subsequent prints.

Heat set Assurance:

When doing some rub tests I did notice some of the toner was not as permanent as I wanted so I gave the printed fabric an extra ironing with high heat iron. Make sure to use a piece of parchment paper to protect the iron surface.

Where & How do I get the drawings?

Ok, here’s my little secret; I do the drawings on my Apple iPad Pro with my apple pencil and the Procreate app. It might seem like cheating but I use photos and then trace what lines I want. This software allows you to make layers somewhat like having a tracing paper over your photo. I can lighten the photo to make it less visible and hide it when I want to see how it’s going. Any mistake can be quickly redone with just the touch of 2 fingers – bam – no erasing!

These drawings are all sentimental and special to me… ‘But you can use whatever you like.

I am trained as a traditional artist but I do love all the brush choices and the undo feature. Do not discount that you can do it before you even try! It is so much fun!

Eventually you start to see how minimal line work is actually needed to represent what you want in this outline style. The pencil tip is pressure sensitive and can be adjusted in many ways, colours, texture, style, etc.

What to use these Fabric Prints for;

This vision in my mind was to create a bulletin board for my Grandson for his birthday. I used my collection of images and would sew the pieces together. This quick method made short work of getting all the images done…

Various things will be tacked to the board so I kept it simple black line. If you have a colour laser printer the method would be the same.

The sheets were sewn together like a quilt to make one large sheet to cover the cork board.

The cork board was covered with some old blanket and poly fibre. The majority of the stapling was done on the back of frame and then covered with a strip of bias fabric (left over from making strip rugs)

Black elastic was stretched between the sections (over the seams). Use what you have…

Yes, my gifts tend to be quite sentimental… That’s just how I roll… If this can make a small impression my on ‘lil one to be creative in the future I will be so happy!

Spend the time with the youngsters even though you think they will forget; they do not. I saw my mother being so creative all my life and she never showed any frustration. That taught me a lot about being persistent and determined.

What do you think? Please, tell me that you believe that you could do the same… I know you can! Here’s to hoping that this tutorial; ‘how to print drawings on cotton fabric at home’ will come in handy at some point!

‘Just a thought; this method could be the starting point for a stitchery, needle felting, painting, or even some FME (free-motion-embroidery) ‘Those wheels are turning in my mind again!