Flour Sack Kitchen Towel

I have been working on coming up with the best method of transferring print to fabric.  I live in a rural area and wanted to be able to work on projects without having to find time to go to the nearest craft store which is 45 minutes away for me.  I have tried several methods, but this is my favorite.  It uses items I have around the house and doesn't require having copies made at a print shop.  Best of all the paper I use to transfer is reusable.  Below are step by step instructions. Happy printing.  

I started with a sheet of card stock and clear contact paper.

I cut the contact paper a little larger than the card stock.  I cut two pieces of contact paper, since it was going to be reusable.  I didn't want to ruin it by getting the back side wet. 

I started at the top and secured the contact paper to the card stock.  I just unrolled it a little at a time.  It is very important that there are no creases in the contact paper.  Once you attach it to the top you can just pull gently on the backing of the contact paper and smooth as you go.  After the whole sheet was attached, I trimmed it with scissors to the size of the contact paper.  I  then repeated the process on the back.

I then stuck the paper in my ink jet printer and printed this image.  It is from http://www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/  She has so many beautiful vintage images ready to download.  You have to check them out. The image has to be a mirror image if there is any text on it or has to be turned a certain way.  Many of her images give you an option of printing the regular image or a mirror image.

I ironed my fabric and placed in on top of a stack of newspaper.  It needs to have a little padding under it.  I then misted the fabric with a spray bottle of water.  Only a tiny bit of water.  If it is too wet the image will bleed.  Gently turn the image face down on the fabric and without moving it tape it to the fabric to keep it from moving.  If it moves at all it will smear the image.  After it is taped down I used the back of a spoon to burnish the image on to the fabric.  I think you might be able to do this with a rolling pin.  After the you have gone over the whole image, remove it from the fabric.  I then ironed it to set the image.  You can take a damp cloth and wipe any remaining ink from the card stock and it is ready to use again.  

This is the finished product!  Thanks for checking it out.

Cindy