First, in this case, I created a pattern that I thought scaled for the end use (a pocket square). I'm sure there are many many books on how to scale patterns right, but for me it's just a eyeball approach: too small and you can't see the detail, too big and you can't see the pattern (or it makes the garment look ugly). Here's what the original pattern looked like:
This by the way is a fractal based pattern and not actually from any sort of prior image. I liked the colors and the scaling and did very little to touch it up with Photoshop.
Printing it out is a snap, and for those who have printed on paper backed fabric before, you know that the critical element is to use the highest resolution possible, and the highest amount of ink/ toner possible. I just set it to Best Quality and no borders on my HP 8.5"x11" printer.
Coming out, and after a minute of drying, I remove the paper backing (gently). However, this doesn't mean it's colorfast and any moisture will ruin the detail. For this reason, the silk has to be steamed. Fortunately the folks at Dharma have a whole section on how to build your own stovetop steamer using a large pot and a short section of stove pipe. With a bit of experimentation and patience (it takes roughly three hours to steam silk), I was able to get steam to the garment without getting it wet (which would ruin it). This sounds physically impossible, but it does work, and the result is not only a cloth that is colorfast, if anything the colors are more vivid and more deeply set into the silk (naturally all paper backed printed designs are primarily one sided).
The result is something that, after hemming, is completely wearable.
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