It’s a Zipper Pouch Series and it’s all about fun fabric variations of the easy zipper pouch shared a few months ago.
The printed fabric pouch idea was inspired initially by my children’s toys. I am constantly organizing them, trying to find the best way to corral them yet keep them available for play. I made vinyl bags last January and while Love Bug’s is still intact and in use, Sweet J’s was mauled beyond repair. We are currently interviewing suspects though we think it was an inside job. :) It’s great to be able to see what is in a bag, especially for children, but he and his toys needed something different. Since he’s not a reader yet, I thought a picture on the outside of the bag would help and that got me thinking about printing on fabric. So I Googled it. This Instructable’s tutorial explained everything and the printed fabric pouch was on its way.
Printing on fabric alone is mind blowing, at least for me. It’s another medium of creativity. But, did you know the printing can be permanent? Like make-it-through-the-wash permanent? Yeah. Awesome.
This idea was inspired by my children but I totally took it over and made things for myself. The pencil bag will go into my purse to keep the coloring tools I carry around for the children together. And the makeup bag, my fave, is in my to-go bag if this baby ever decides to come. It turned out so lovely and girly. I love looking at it.
But enough about me, let’s get to the steps!
Supplies:
-image
-fabric
-zipper – I bought my assortment of zippers here, available in a variety of lengths
–Bubble Jet Set
-freezer paper
-iron
-ink jet printer
–easy zipper pouch tutorial
The image is the fun part and it’s all up to you! Mine are very on the nose – images of the items the bag will hold. But the options are endless. Think about graphics, fonts, image patterns, copies of artwork by you or your children, other favorite images, etc. Just make sure it’s a high quality image, well lit and bright with good contrast. In this lipstick version, I played around with repeated images.
For my images, I set up items on neutral, solid backgrounds and snapped a pic. I processed them and turned them into printable PDFs. Before doing anything, I planned out how large I wanted the pouch to be. The size of the pouch determines how large the printed image should be, unless you are piecing on more fabric. In Photoshop, I made a thin rectangle to show the size of the pouch, adjusted the image and then widened the rectangle on all sides by 1/2″ for an inseam.
To print on fabric:
Saturate the fabric in the Bubble Jet Set and allow it to dry completely. The Bubble Jet Set prepares fabrics to be printed on and the results are permanent and washable! The fabric stays soft because there are no plastic polymers is the treatment. Only for use on 100% cotton or 100% silk fabrics and it must be an ink jet printer or Bubble Jet printer using dye based inks.
When the fabric is dry, iron freezer paper on to your treated fabric and cut it down to fit your printer.
Print your image and let it sit for at least 30 minutes. Then rinse and wash gently in cold water with Bubble Jet Set Rinse to remove the excess ink. It’s best to use gloves and good ventilation for this part.
Once its completely dry, peel off the freezer paper.
Then follow the steps on the easy zipper pouch tutorial to create the pouch.
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More zipper pouch variations to check out:
cotton & vinyl pouch – painted fabric pouch – made fabric pouch
