Tutorial - Stamping on Fabric

Stamps are a great way to add decoration to t-shirts, bags, pencil cases, placemats and many other fabric items. The trick is in finding an ink that will leave a crisp, clear impression and stand up to the laundering process. I happen to own many different types of stamp pads, so decided to put ten of them to the test!

I stamped the images on small pieces of cotton calico, looking to see how much the ink bled into the fibres of the cotton. I was surprised to see that they all did well, producing nice, crisp imprints. Next, I tested colour clarity and intensity, but to be fair, some of the ink pads were VERY old and perhaps not as juicy as they could be. Overall, I was happy with the impressions from all ten.

Since a number of the inks were water based, I really didn't think they would stand up to the laundering process, which involved a hand wash with laundry detergent, a clean rinse and drying with a hot iron. As you can see from the photos below, many of the inks did very well, with only one disappearing completely.

Although many of the ink pads produced great results, my preference would be either Archival or StazOn for permanent, crisp and clear impressions on fabric. Keep in mind though, that I didn't take longevity into account, so you might want to do your own test to see how many launderings your ink choice can take.