Has anyone made rugs using inkjet printer?

[mygrommi]

Many years ago I copied photographs onto special transfer paper and transferred the photos to fabric with an iron for a wall hanging.

Now I want to make dollhouse rugs. I found some transfer paper at JoAnns for laser copiers, but the package says to avoid Ricoh copiers and that is the kind of copier I have access to. I have some photos of rugs that I wanted to copy, but I can' t do his because of the package warning not to use the Ricoh machine.

I asked at the copy center in Office Depot and they said they can't print on this laser paper because it ruins their copiers.

I would prefer to use a laser printer because laser printers burn or embed the image into the paper, but inkjet printers only apply the image to the surface of the paper. The printing on a letter printed with an inkjet printer will smear when wet, whereas a letter printed with a laser printer will not smear.

Hiwever, it seems I will have to use an injetprinter and my daughter owns an inkjet printer that I can use. My question is which is better to buy - the inkjet transfer paper that you print the picture on and then transfer the picture to fabric with an iron - Or - the printable 8.5 x 11 fabric sheets that you print the picture directly on?

Also, do you seal the finished rug with something to prevent fading of the ink over time?

I hope someone has done this and can give me advice since I hope to get it right the first time and not waste paper and ink experimenting.

Thanks,

Renea

[KathieB]

Renea, my experience with the inkjet printer has been to print directly on the fabric. You can use the precut sheets that you mention, or you can get some white cotton fabric (like muslin) and iron it onto the shiny side of freezer paper. Cut it to size (8.5 x 11) and run that through the printer. Be sure the leading edge is clean and well adhered to prevent a jam in the printer. Much less expensive than the packaged sheets.

Unless you're expecting a flood in your dollhouse, there's really no need to seal the rug. If you feel the need, you might try hairspray or an artist's spray sealer. If you use hairspray, be sure it isn't water based. Don't ask me how I know this, but I can personally talk about a lovely crazy quilt that turned into a lovely blur of colors when spritzed with a waterbased hairspray..

[mygrommi]

I was concerned about the inkjet printer ink fading over time due to light, not water, but I guess I was misleading usiing the example of the ink smearing with water. I was thinking laser toner might be more durable than laser jet ink toner so I used the smearing example from experience at work with injkjet printers vs lasers.

Hoping that a matte sealer of some kind would preserve the rugs and keep the colors looking good.

I have a 50% coupon for JoAnns for today so think I wil try the package of printer paper rather than making my own.

Thanks

Renea

[havanaholly]

Be sure to let us know how it comes out.

[mygrommi]

I will. When I got to JoAnns the quilting notions were all 50% off so I decided to buy the printable fabric sheets and a package of transfer paper and see which one I like best. My daughter's printer is out of color toner so will buy her a cartridge and try it as soon as I can.

Another question - any suggestions on how to make tiny fringe for the rugs? I will look at the fabric store to see if I can find a trim or fringe that I can trim down to the correct size. Embroidery floss would probably work well, but I haven' actually sat down and experimented with it. I have so many projects running around in my head and limited time to work on them.

I know I'm not supposed to get in a hurry doing a dollhouse, but I need to get tis one done as soon as I can - before my granddaughter is too old to play with it!

Renea

[KathieB]

Before you cut out the rug, run a small bead of white glue at the edge of the pattern on all four sides on the backside of the rug. It will dry clear and the shininess won't show on the top side. It will keep the rug from unraveling. When you cut the rug out of the cloth, trim the sides up close to the color but leave an edge of a half inch (or whatever looks good) at either end. Carefully pull out the horizontal threads and -- voila!-- fringe from the warp threads. After all, in real oriental rugs, the fringe is just the warp threads tied to prevent unraveling. In mini, the tying isn't really necessary, although you could try it.

I've found that trying to add fringe is difficult to do in scale. It ends up way too bulky.

[havanaholly]

Another way to make fringe I've read about is to glue narrow grosgrain ribbon to the edge you want to fringe and remove the warp threads, letting the weft threads become the fringe. I stitch all my rugs and always do the last row of stitching in blanket stitch, turning under the unfringed sides and then trimming the fringed ends the length I want the fringe and unraveling thread to the blanket stitching:

[Minis Over The Hill]

I use my inkjet printer with plain paper towels, tape well to cardstock and print. The color always looks great. Seal with matte sealer. Cut out leaving a small border at the ends and cut fringe. I glue the paper towel to the cardstock with s gluestick. Do show and tell whatever method you use!

[mygrommi]

Holly, your rug is nice. Is it cross stitch? I would love to I cross stitch again, but my eyes don' t like it anymore.

Renea

[havanaholly]

Thanks, Renea. It's actually petitpoint and I use a jewelers' loupe ot see the threads.

[mygrommi]

I found another way to fringe the rugs.

I visited a dollhouse shop and took a peak at the back of some of the rugs. A strip about 1/2" wide of needlepoint canvas had been attached (maybe glued, maybe sewn - I don't remember) to the back of the printed rug at each end of the rug. They had pulled out the horizontal threads of the canvas which left a nice fringe. This was also done on a rug that was made entirely of needle point canvas and they had left about a half inch of the needlepoint fabric to use for the fringe.

Both rugs really looked good.

It may be a little while before I can print the rugs, but I will definitely report back - hopefully with success and photos.

Renea

[dorn27]

I have never had any problem with iron on transfers. I have a regular old inkjet printer from HP. The ink goes onto what will become the 'inside' of the transfer. Once you iron it on, the ink is sealed between the shirt and the transfer medium. We have a shirt I made in 2004, that while it has faded with weekly to monthly washings, is still clear and crisp. No smears or anything.

I also regularly make personalized baby "onesies" with cute things the parents will enjoy drawn on paper with crayon, scanned into a printer, flipped the image (so it reads the right way) and transfered to the baby's outfit. This way, it looks like crayon, washes like fabric and never comes off. Super cute.

[jessicawatsonus]

Rugs makes home beautiful try to use the natural hand craft rugs like for life longevity.

[shannonc60]

You can also buy velour paper, which I use to print rugs directly onto. Gives it a nice fuzzy finish, but can curl up a little.

[Caseymini]

Here's a link to my tutorial for inkjet printing rugs. I was doing quarter inch rugs at the time, but the method is the same. http://caseymini.blogspot.com/2011/04/little-rugged.html

I do add fringe to the one inch rugs. I simply cut a half inch strip of the same muslin I print on. Then glue about half of the length of the strip to the back edge of the rug. Carefully pull out the threads to the edge of the rug. The point of a needle will help to get them out. When the pulling is finished, trim the edge, with sharp scissors, to the length that you want. I do spray them with Patricia Nimocks spray fixative. You can get that at Michael's, Walmart or Joanne's. I spray everything that I print on the inkjet with the matte sealer.

Most people don't notice that they are printed. There are too many other things to look at in the dollhouse. On top of that, they are amazed at the method that you used if you tell them about it.

[Debra from Olde Cape Cod]

Thanks Casey! I think the steampunk summer house could use a couple of these....

[Gee]

I have printed with inkjet printer and then ironed it onto fabric. easy and looks good.But sometimes the plastic (?) where you print on just does not take well on the fabric.

I have heard good things about that other stuff.. print on fabric and ready, would like to try that too some time.

Sounds like less fuzz, less waste and better result.

I too have searched the internet for laser prints but in my area did not succeed.

I've got an inkjet printer, It is a HP C5180 allinone printer; I have read online somewhere that the ink, in these little containers, does not fade away easily.

I took it as the next best thing to laser (I know it really is no comparance)

[havanaholly]

Jessica, I'm a stitcher; where did you find the chart for your elephant rug?