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How to Print Fabric: Part 2

You’ve already learned the basic process of how to print your own fabric. Now, it’s time to figure out which printable fabric material is the best.

We’ve done all the research and testing so you don’t have to! In this article, you’ll see how five different printable fabric materials stood up to the preparation process and how they stood up to the washing machine!

One of the popular questions we receive about printable fabric is “Is it washable?!” This question makes total sense! If you’re going to making a project with fabric, there’s a good chance it will end up in the washing machine. So let’s take a look at the results of our testing.

THE TESTING PROCESS:

  • For each product we completed the same preparation process.
  • Each print was created using the Canon TS8320 printer, on a “Normal” quality setting
  • After printing, each print was heat set, rinsed and allowed to dry completely . Here are the results:

EQ PRINTABLES 8.5X11 PRINTABLE COTTON LAWN

The EQ Printable Cotton Lawn is a thin, soft material that has a really nice feel to it. Since it is a thin fabric, it is also somewhat translucent.

After rinsing, the EQ Printable Cotton Lawn lost a bit of the pink hue from the background color but other than that, all other colors were bright and did not fade. Once this product went through the washing machine, we were really impressed with how bright the colors were. There was a very little fading.

RATINGS:

SOFTNESS: 9 out of 10

DURABILITY: 8 out of 10

EQ PRINTABLES 11×17 PRINTABLE COTTON

The Electric Quilt Company Printable Cotton is available in 11×17, which is what we used here. With the larger size, you can create projects like a purse or lunchbox!

After rinsing, we noticed that the pink hue faded a bit from the background but other than that everything else looked good! After one trip through the washing machine, the colors stayed pretty intact. There was a bit of fading – mostly noticeable on the darker colors. All in all, we were really happy with the way this printable fabric held up.

RATINGS:

SOFTNESS: 5 out of 10

DURABILITY: 8 out of 10

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JACQUARD PRINTABLE COTTON

You can probably see that this one is a hard “NO!” After rinsing there wasn’t a huge change in the quality of the print but after one trip through the washing machine, this fabric faded terribly. We would not recommend this printable fabric for your projects.

RATINGS:

SOFTNESS: 6 out of 10

DURABILITY: 0 out of 10

JUNE TAILOR, INC COLORFAST

Like a few of the other printable fabrics, we noticed that the pink hue of the background changed a bit after rinsing. After washing, this fabric was by FAR the most bright and durable. There was some fading to the darker colors but it was not terribly noticeable.

The feel of this fabric is a bit thick and stiff, which makes it great for makeup bags or DIY bean bags for outdoor games. After a trip through the washing machine, the fabric softened a bit…but not much.

RATINGS:

SOFTNESS: 4 out of 10

DURABILITY: 9 out of 10

CRAFTER’S IMAGE PHOTO FABRIC

Another hard “NO!” This faded really badly after being washed. While the feel of the fabric is soft – there’s really nothing else about this printable fabric that makes it worth your money.

RATINGS:

SOFTNESS: 6 out of 10

DURABILITY: 0 out of 10

AND THE WINNER IS…

Of each item tested, we strongly believe that the June Tailor, Inc Colorfast printable fabric is the best!

Coming a close second (and third) are the printable fabrics from The Electric Quilt Company. Both their Printable Cotton Lawn and Printable Cotton fabrics stood up well and showed very good durability.

A NOTE ABOUT WASHING…

When washing your printed fabrics, make sure to use the “delicates” or “gentle” setting and wash them separately from other items. Additionally, you’ll want to use a gentle detergent. This will help preserve your printed fabric projects.

1 thought on “How to Print Fabric: Part 2

  1. Hi Amber,
    I like the idea of making covers for notebooks. I was looking for adhesive fabric to complete a Quiet book for my newest granddaughter. Baby (k)
    This looks like some great options.
    I have the Disney Scan N Cut (I love it) Just trying to learn as much as I can before really trying anything beyond paper.
    But I have cut fabric on the Cricut Expression before it turned out okay but not the greatest. I did have better success with the Grand Caliber die cutting machine.
    Thanks for sharing

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