Message: How do I set regular ink from a blue ballpoint pen? I drew an amazing design on my daughter's coat and I am worried about it fading, or worse, bleeding in the wash. It is drawn on I think a polyester, cause it's like that shiny silky coat fabric like you buy at Walmart that everyone's coats are made out of, but it does not have a tag to tell me what it's really made out of. Not a natural fabric for sure.

The only thing you can do is never, ever wash the coat! You will probably also want to store it away from direct sunlight, when it's not being worn. Washing with detergent and water will remove the ink. Sunlight might fade it, eventually.

There is no way to set ballpoint pen ink on fabric, as you would set a dye. Ballpoint pen ink is not a dye, and most of the ink in your design, although not all, will wash out, if you ever wash that coat. You could try painting heavily over the design with a colorless fabric paint extender, to protect it, but that will stiffen the the fabric some. You will not be able to find clear fabric paint in your local stores, but you can buy it by mail-order from a company like Mister Art or Dharma Trading Company.

In the future, if you want your designs to withstand washing, you will need to plan ahead and use the right materials. What would be great for you to use would be fabric markers. The ink in fabric markers contains special binders to make them stick to the fabric. Some fabric markers must be ironed to fix these binders, while others will last without any heat fixing step. You might be able to find Crayola Fabric Markers at a crafts store. There are a lot of other brands, with finer points, but you will probably have to buy those by mail.  Look at the different markers at this link. I like the FabricMate markers, the Marvy markers, and the Identipen markers the best. The Identipen markers might be best for a fine detailed drawing, since their ink is supposed to spread less. Here's a link to a picture of a shirt I drew with Marvy markers.

Fabric markers look like the felt-tip pens that are used on paper, but the ink they contain is different. A fabric marker will always be labeled to indicate that it is intended for use on fabric. Some fabric markers will work well only on natural fibers, so check the label before you begin to draw, to make sure that it's the right marker for your fabric.

There's another problem with drawing on a coat. It probably has a water-resistant finish. That's good when you get caught in the rain, but unfortunately it keeps even the best fabric marker ink from sinking into the fiber and bonding with it. Fabrics that get wet easily when you sprinkle water on them are much better to use for drawing. Also, natural fiber fabrics may hold the fabric marker ink better than synthetic fibers.

Take a picture of the drawing on your daughter's coat, if you can, so that you'll have a record of it even after the ink washes out, or when the coat gets dirty. I hope you'll do more drawings after you get some good fabric markers.

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