Can you transfer a photograph onto fabric?
 

Hi everyone. It is possible to transfer a photograph/picture onto a piece of plain fabric? If so, how do you do it? At a show there was a quilt on display and it had a picture of someone's relative/loved one and I just wondered how they managed to do this as it looked great. There's a bookshelf quilt that is on my to do list and it would be good if I could include a frame on the shelf with a picture on it. Thank you for your help.

Anna Marie x

Yes, with a but! You need to treat your fabric first. I have done this using ~ Bubble Jet Set. You treat the fabric and iron onto freezer paper, then thru the printer it goes. Another way is to purchase pre-treat sheets, like Printed Treasure.

I buy the pre treated sheets and they have worked very well for me.

I buy the pretreated sheets. You can get them at Hancock's or Hobby Lobby.

I just received in the mail 'Lesley Riley's Tap Transfer Artist Paper'. There are 18 iron-on image transfer sheets that are 8.5" x 11". It is to be used with an inkjet printer. You can 'transfer images with a hot iron to virtually any surface - fabric, paper, wood, glass, canvas, metal and more'. You can also draw your own pictures and transfer them onto all these surfaces!

On the front it shows transferring pictures onto fabric. That is why I bought it. I saw a demo on YouTube. Hope this helps you.

Thank you for your replies. That's really helpful, great!! I'm going to a sewing show here in the UK on Thursday so I will keep a look out for the transfer sheets.

Anna Marie x

There are several ways to do this.

You can check on the net. Artists usually use soda ash and such.

Quilters use quite a few different ways. What I have done has worked for me. But you might want to do so test photos first. I do't use bubble jet but use washed [no additives at all!] or PFD fabric and run it thru my printer scanner using a label technique [ironing onto freezer paper before printing] but NOT on best print, so as not to have to much ink. I do heat set the ink after printing.