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Friday, August 19, 2011

Treat that Fabric Before Printing, or ....

this is what you may get after you wash it ......



I had printed some photos onto white cotton that I had not taken the time to pre-treat. I was in a hurry plus I didn't expect to ever wash the fabric as it was for use in my challenge quilt over at Tangled Textiles. So I started with these printed fabrics .....
I then added some fabric borders around them, thinking I'd work them somehow into a mini quilt.
However I wasn't happy with them as they were quite washed out looking and the theme was Celebrate! So I decided I'd simply wash the blocks and have them ready for dyeing. And this is what happened to the centers that had previously had a photo printed on them .....
I am actually very happy about this white square as I wasn't happy with the photos at all. I am wondering though if the photos were dull out because I had not increased the intensity of the colors (which I did do for the photos that I ended up using in my challenge quilt) or if it was due to the quality of the printer or ink I used or if it was because I had not treated the fabric? I had thought that the treating of fabric for printing was simply to help make it more colorfast so it doesn't wash away. Do you know?



4 comments:

  1. I use the pretreated fabric from Joann's with a coupon. The other way was too much fuss for me, and I didn't do it.

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  2. I have only used special fabric made to print on that has a paper backing. After printing you need to remove the paper and iron the fabric to fix the print and then wash it in cold water.

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  3. Glad it wasn't your challenge piece!!

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  4. Wow! I didn't know this could happen. I'm sorry you had the problem, but glad you shared the information with us.

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