If the handmade canvas was to be used only for painting, rebusB's answer is the obvious truth. And that can certainly be used for the original painting. However, the question also states the intention to use the canvas in an inkjet printer. Even if you could get the canvas to feed, the results would likely not be acceptable. There is canvas media made for inkjet printers that you could use for those reproductions, but it needs to meet a number of criteria that would be hard to replicate by hand.
- The canvas needs to be in the range of thickness and stiffness that will work with the printer's feed mechanism.
- The surface needs to be very uniform, both for proper feeding and uniform printing.
- The fabric needs to be uniformly coated with a material that properly controls absorption of the ink.
Given the right materials, advanced skill level, R&D to perfect the process, a lot of time to produce each canvas, and a significant expected failure rate, it is probably humanly possible to replicate a canvas that would work. But success would have requirements far beyond producing a canvas to paint on.
Alternatives for the inkjet reproductions
The best results, and perhaps only practical solution, is to purchase inkjet canvas media. This will look and behave like artist canvas and give consistent good results on an inkjet printer.
There is another approach that probably won't meet your expectations, given the lengths you are willing to go to for authenticity, but I'll cover it for completeness.
The picture will already be in digital format if you plan to print it on an inkjet. Image processing software, like Photoshop, has an "embossing" feature that allows you to apply a "3D" texture to an image. Canvas is a texture that is usually available. The feature adjusts brightness to superimpose the highlights and shadows that the texture would produce. You print on paper, and can typically adjust the apparent depth of embossing and the angle of illumination to match how you will display it.
If you look at the print from an angle, the reflected light will give away that the surface is actually smooth, although you can minimize that by using matte paper. The effect is reasonably convincing at normal viewing distance, but up close, you can see that the texture is actually part of the image.
Caveats
Pro quality inkjet printers produce their amazing results only on ideal media; the media is an integral part of the results. The printers will apply ink to any surface you can move through the printer, but the results won't achieve the realism and accuracy if the media doesn't contribute its role in the process. The results can even look like crap on mediocre or poor media, regardless of the capabilities of the printer.
Without specialized equipment and materials, you won't be able to manually produce media that will give you the professional-level output the printers are capable of.
You need to be aware of the limitation of surface reflectivity if you want to replicate painting with an inkjet printer. The ink soaks into the media, so the surface will always look like the media surface unless you subsequently apply a protective finish coat.
Water colors have a matte finish, so replicating them on an inkjet will work on any kind of media (but will look the most realistic on matte media). Oil or acrylic paint dries shiny. The only way for an inkjet print to replicate it realistically is to either print on glossy media or apply a glossy finish coat.
Oil and acrylic paint also have noticeable thickness variation that is obviously missing when printing on smooth paper or even inkjet canvas media. Printed commercial reproductions often go the extra step of embossing the media to create the appearance of brush strokes and thick paint.
