Inkjet Printing Directly onto Fabric
Background:
Inkjet printing onto fabric is very|surprisely simple and effective.
In the Map Shirt project, I had used an inkjet printer to INDIRECTLY print on fabric, by first printing a mirror image on to transfer paper, and then ironing the transfer paper onto the fabric. That process was somewhat time-intensive and expensive. The transfer paper also altered the texture of the the original material. Printing directly onto fabric seemed like a simpler/cheaper/more elegant approach.
The instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/Inkjet-Printing-on-Fabric/ recommended ironing fabric and freezer paper, lightly fusing the two to crate a paper|fabric sheet that is stiff enough to go through the printer.
I did not have any freezer paper, but did find another instructables for making home-made freezer paper: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-your-own-freezer-paper./
The freezer paper instructable linked to a conductive fabric instructable, that showed conductive fabric adhered directly to paper with nail varnish, to be printed on: http://www.instructables.com/id/Conductive-Fabric-Make-Flexible-Circuits-Using-An/step1/Print-The-Circuit-Pattern-With-An-Inkjet-Printer/
This gave me the idea of trying a even simpler approach for preparing fabric for the printer-
taping fabric onto paper.
Process:
First I ironed the fabric to flatten it. (I used sheer fabric that I had on hand.) Then I cut it to sizes that were smaller than the 8.5in x 11in dimension of the paper.
I prepared a simple image to be printed. (angry-looking baby deer found in a book of chinese cut-paper designs)
I tried both thick brochure paper and clear tape(left image) and regular 20 lb printer paper with masking tape (right image).
The different weight of backing paper did not make noticeable differences. Both times the image printed onto the fabric clearly and in great detail.
Conclusion: Directly printing onto paper is really effective and very simple to do. Basically there is no additional preparation you need to do, you can just tape fabric onto regular paper, and it will print out fine.
One draw back in this approach is that printing is limited onto pieces of fabric smaller than the size of paper that a printer can take, and thickness of fabric may also be an issue. With transfer paper, you are able to transfer the image onto fabric of arbitrary size, form and thickness.
Here is a recipe for home-made transfer paper: http://chestofbooks.com/reference/Facts-For-Everybody/How-To-Make-Transfer-Paper.html