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Friday, April 15, 2011

A Little Rugged.....

This idea has been around as long as I have been on the computer, in one form or another. I have used it since the 90s. I decided to do my version of it for you. Everybody has their own method. Its freezer paper/fabric printing for mini rugs. It is also used by quilters for applique.

I guess that you can mess up your printer doing this, but I have gone through several printers and this was never the cause for them going to printer heaven. So, if you try it, do it carefully!

The only supplies that you need are, freezer paper with a shiny side,( I use Reynolds.) Muslin or other cotton material, sharp scissors and white glue like Tacky or Elmer's. Oh, and a sharp pencil a 8 1/2" by 11" piece of card stock for a pattern.

The first thing I do is have Tessie zap lines the size of the card stock onto the freezer paper....She made me say that.(I really do it with the pencil.) Do this carefully. It has to be accurate, so as not to mess up the printer.

I cut those out and then, with a medium iron, I iron the freezer paper to pre-washed and ironed muslin.

You need to use 100% cotton to get the best print. You need to line up the paper as carefully as you can with the grain of the fabric.

When you have this done, cut the excess fabric from around the paper and make sure that there are no stray threads anywhere.

Next you have to have photos of rugs to print. I went to a website called Rugs Direct. You have to use the largest photo of the rugs to save, but you also can delete them as soon as you are finished arranging your pattern page.

I did mine in Print Shop 15. You can use whatever similar program you happen to have.

As you can see, in quarter inch you can get a lot of rugs on a page. Do leave some space between. That just makes them easier to work with. Tessie did insist that I do the one at the top right for her. She said it looked witchy. When you get the rugs arranged and sized as you like them, you are ready to print.

Put your muslin/freezer paper in the printer with the muslin to the printing side. Hold your breath and press the print button.

When it is printed spray it with a fixative or sealer. No gloss! Matte. I use Patrica Nimmock's matte spray sealer. In a pinch, you can use pump hairspray. Not as good. It may run....

Now cut the rugs apart and one at a time, peel off the paper. Spread a thin coat of glue around the underside of the edge and let it dry. Then carefully cut it out on all four sides.

If you want fringe on the end, take a strip of muslin and ravel it out I used about a quarter inch for the 1/4 scale rugs. I raveled out about a sixteenth of an inch for them. Then I glued the strip to the back of the rug and made sure that the edge was straight.

If you want the rug to look a bit used, you can do what I did for the rug in this photo. I tore the strip instead of cutting. That gives just enough of a rough edge to the fringe.

There you have it. Now go make a rug or two or three or more.

I would love to see your results.

See you tomorrow.

5 comments:

Chris P's Minis and More said...

well I will have to try this...some time in may. I am not doing mnis at the moment. I will let you know my results. I long timre ago mine got stuck in the printer but I will try agagin if you can I can. The instructions seem easy enough!! thanks Casey!

Lucille said...

Thanks for the tutorial, Casey. The rug looks great!

Minka said...

Thank you for posting this!
Does it matter if you pull off the paper before or after you spray it?

Chris said...

Thanks for the tutorial, Casey!

Caseymini said...

Minka, spray before cutting apart and peeling off the paper. I re wrote that part so that it is more understandable.