Lavender Printing: Creative Printing on Fabric

With lavender oil any motif can be printed on fabric. How the technique works, we explain here!

Lavender print: What is that?

Lavender printing is a technique with which you can easily transfer a motif of your choice onto fabric or wood with a laser copy and lavender oil. On textiles the print can even be fixed in a washable way! The technique is very simple and is ideal for creatively spicing up a fabric bag or a simple t-shirt.

Lavender print: How it works!

You need

• Light or white fabric (cotton)
• Lavender essential oil
• Laser copy (motives can be black and white or colored)
• Brushes
• Wooden spoon or similar (object must be blunt)
• Cardboard
• Masking tape
• Iron
• Baking paper

Instructions

1. Smooth your fabric or iron it if necessary.
2. Protect your workplace with cardboard or an absorbent cloth. If you want to print on a T-shirt, put a piece of cardboard or several layers of paper inside the shirt so that the print does not rub off on the back.
3. Fasten your laser copy with some masking tape with the printed side down on the piece of fabric.
4. Using a brush, apply lavender oil over a large area of the copy and let it work for a few seconds. Attention: Do not use too much oil, otherwise the print will blur. The print should be saturated with oil without creating puddles of oil.
5. Use the back of a wooden spoon to rub over the copy at all points. You can apply some pressure. Make sure that the paper does not slip!
6. If you are satisfied with the result, the laser print can be removed, otherwise rub the print again. Then let the cotton fabric dry.
7. Now the fabric must be fixed so that it can be washed at 30 degrees later: Place a piece of baking paper on the fabric. Put a piece of baking paper on top of the fabric. To make sure that the oil is also absorbed on the back of the fabric, you also put paper underneath. Then iron over the baking paper for a few minutes (cotton programme without steam).

Lavender print: Tips & Tricks

• Lavender printing only works with a laser copy. The colour pigments are softened with the oil and transferred to the fabric by the friction of the cooking spoon.
• Use a high-contrast motif and the “highest quality” setting for your printout to get the best print result.
• Make sure that the motif is mirror-inverted – this is especially important for a lettering!
• Lavender oil smells very intensive, open the window when printing.
• To get some practice with the printing technique, you should first use a sample fabric.
• You can also use lavender print on tree slices or boards: Since the wood grain remains visible, you can create a great shabby look!

Lavender print: Ideas from Pinterest

We have been inspired by Pinterest and found beautiful ideas with lavender print.