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Hand Embroidery Transfer Methods
The nice thing about most designs on Urban Threads is that they’re versatile. Don’t have an embroidery machine? No problem, stitch it by hand! Traditional enough for those who still like playing with pointy objects, and doesn’t require you to sell your firstborn just so you can stitch a few sweet designs.
These designs can go on anything you can trace and sew on, and that leaves quite a lot out there, but you need to know how to GET your design on there. So, after you’ve downloaded your design, how do you transfer these nifty little designs for stitching? There are a bunch of super simple ways, and thankfully, most of these methods can be found in your friendly neighborhood craft or sewing store. Check 'em out:
Carbon Transfer Paper
Transfer Pen (or Pencil)
Sneaky Printer Trick
Printed Fabric Transfer
Carbon Transfer Paper
So, let’s start with the most common transfer method, with your run-of-the-mill "carbon transfer paper." Well, I think it’s run-of-the-mill, apparently my paper thinks it's "SUPER" chacopaper. Not quite sure what makes it super, but it says so on the package, and packaging never lies, right?
We’ll cover a few other transfer methods after we check out our SUPER chacopaper, but in general, the things to keep in mind when transferring your design are whether it’s on light or dark fabric. Also check to make sure your transfer method isn’t permanent, unless you don’t care if your design marks stay on your fabric.
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If you’re new to hand embroidery, pick a simple design with not too many tiny details. The difficulty level can vary with different designs, so use your astute powers of observation to decide which one is best for you.
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Print out your design on regular paper. (If you need some tips on printing hand embroidery files, check out this tutorial!)
Take that carbon paper and place it carbon side down onto your fabric, then place your printed design on top of it. Keep in mind when you’re placing your image that you need enough room around it to be able to hoop the fabric, so don’t put it too close to an edge.
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Trying to transfer an image onto dark fabric? No problem! Carbon paper comes in different colors, and one of them is white. Using white carbon paper on black fabric with ensure your design comes through nice and clear. If you can’t find it in your local craft store, try online. This is one of the advantages of carbon transfer over an iron-on transfer, as most iron-on methods can only be used on light fabrics.
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Use a pencil, stylus, or anything firm and vaguely pointy to trace over your design. Don’t use anything too sharp, or you might punch right through your fabric, and take extra care not to let your design move while you’re tracing it. I like adding a piece of masking tape to the top or side to keep it in place.
Taking care not to shift your design, pull it back now and then to make sure your design is transferring properly. Mine comes out a nice pretty blue, light enough to be subtle but still visible. If you can’t see your design well enough, trace over it again.
There you have it! That’s the very common carbon paper transfer method.
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Transfer Pen (or Pencil)
Another very common way to transfer images is with a transfer pen, found in almost any craft or sewing store. All you need is a print of your design, your pen, and an iron. You might also want a pressing cloth, depending on how you transfer your image. I’ll explain...
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If you’re starting with a brand new transfer pen, the tip will be dry. Hold the pen onto a blank piece of paper or scrap, and press it down a few times to start the ink flowing. Not too much! You don’t want to pool up excess ink. If it ever runs dry tap it once like that and the ink should return.
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My favorite way of using the transfer pen is by printing my design as-is, and then flipping it over and tracing onto the back. This is so when we iron it, it doesn’t turn out backwards.
If you’re having trouble seeing through your paper, try holding it up to a bright window.
If you’d prefer not to mess with the back, you can always trace over the front, but you have to mirror your image first (check out this tutorial to find out how).
Keep in mind, if you’ve printed black and your transfer pen is black, it might be kind of tricky to see where you’ve traced already. If you like, you can adjust the color or lightness of your print with some tips from this tutorial, so it’s easier to see where you’re tracing.
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Are you working with a transfer pencil instead of a transfer pen? No problem! The technique is exactly the same -- trace the image and iron on. The only difference is the quality of the transfer of the two. Pencils tend to be much lighter (and sometimes a lot harder to see) but then the transfer is more invisible after it’s stitched over. It’s totally personal preference. If you’re just starting out, I’d recommend the pen, as it makes the clearest marks to follow.
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Place your design transfer ink side down (this will depend on which side you traced). If you traced on the back, and used a laser printer or photocopier to print it, here’s where you might need a pressing cloth...
Most inks from laser printers or photocopiers can actually come off the paper when heat is applied. If that happens without a pressing cloth, that means you get ink right on your iron. Guess how the bunny knows this.
So, if you need it, put a pressing cloth down. With a hot iron, carefully iron over your design, making sure it doesn’t move or shift while you’re ironing!
To check your transfer, carefully peel back your paper every once in awhile to see how it’s coming through. You may need a lot of heat for it to transfer properly. Usually the cotton setting, no steam works best.
There’s our little owl! All neat and transferred over to our stitching fabric.
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Psst... Don’t have a transfer pen handy? Well that problem you can have with your printer ink coming off with heat can actually be your friend! All you need is a laser printer or photocopier (inkjet won’t work), and you can try this sneaky trick if you’re in a jam...
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Sneaky Printer Trick
Now, this doesn’t work terribly well, but if you have no other supplies and you really really need to stitch something, ironing a photocopy or laser print directly onto the fabric can leave a very faint transfer, like shown. Remember, you’ll want to mirror your design if you’re doing this! Don’t know how? Check out this tute.
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Printed Fabric Transfer
Don’t care for all that tracing? Well, another more permanent option is to print your design onto fabric, using inkjet fabric found at the craft store.
The only problem with this method is your transfer lines are completely permanent, and pretty bold. This is an example of a kitty if we printed him just as he came.
As you can see, the printed lines can peek through your stitches, and it means you have to stitch over every line. There are ways to soften this effect though...
You can lessen the impact of the transfer by lightening or changing the color, for example, making it a light blue like our other transfer often looks like. You will still have to stitch over every line to hide the transfer, but it should be less noticeable than a heavy black.
Want to know how to change the colors of a hand embroidery or stock art design? Click here for some tips from the bunny!
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Want another method of transferring that doesn’t require tracing? There’s this neat stuff called Transfer-Eze!! It’s kinda like water soluble stabilizer. You print your design on it, peel and stick it onto your fabric, and dissolve it away with water when you’re done! Easy-peasy, and no transfer lines left behind when you’re done.
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So that’s it! There are all sorts of ways you can transfer your downloaded design, and you can choose which one works best for you. All you need to do now is find a hoop big enough to accommodate your spiffy stitches and you’re ready to stitch!
If you’re just starting out, you can check out this tutorial that covers some basic hand embroidery stitches, so you can start creating that embroidered masterpiece!
http://www.urbanthreads.com/tutorials.aspx?t=Hand+Embroidery+Transfer+Methods
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The Machine Embroiderer's Toolkit
If you're a crafty person of any sort, you already know how having the right tools for the job can make everything wonderful. Once you've chosen an embroidery machine, the really big question is settled, but there are still a bunch more items you'll need to make the embroidery magic happen.
Here's a list of must-haves, from our own experience and conversations with Urban Threadsters like you. Stock your sewing studio with these tools and supplies, and you'll be ready for just about any embroidery adventure that comes your way!
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Fabric isn't built to support embroidery all by itself, so you'll need some stabilizer to keep the design from shifting, gapping, or puckering. There are various types available, and different stabilizers suit different fabrics and embroidery designs, so you'll probably have use for many of them at some point:
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• A medium weight cutaway stabilizer -- this is what we use most of the time, and it'll provide great stability for designs stitched on fabric. Good quality stabilizers are strong yet soft.
• A sheer mesh cutaway stabilizer such as Sulky Soft 'n' Sheer or Floriani No Show Mesh. Great for stitching light, open designs onto T-shirts and quilters cotton.
• A tearaway stabilizer. Again, most of the time we recommend cutaway for better stability when stitching on fabric, but you'll occasionally find tearaway useful for in-the-hoop designs and such.
• A heavy duty water-soluble stabilizer such as Sulky Ultra Solvy or Badgemaster, for stitching freestanding lace.
• A light water-soluble stabilizer for use as a topping, to keep stitches from disappearing onto fabrics with pile, such as terrycloth.
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Get some temporary spray adhesive, too. For increased stability, we like to spray the stabilizer with adhesive, smooth it onto the back of the fabric, then hoop both layers taut together. We use Gunold KK100.
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You're going to need some thread, of course! The usual approach is to pick a brand/line and work with the whole range of colors in that line. Quality does vary, and your machine may like some threads better than others, so sample the different kinds of threads available to you before you buy a whole bunch in one line.
Embroidery is typically done in rayon or polyester. Rayon has a reputation for being shinier and prettier, while polyester is said to be stronger and more colorfast. There are lots of specialty threads you can use to embroider, too -- metallic, cotton, variegated, glow-in-the-dark. Have fun experimenting!
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The colors for Urban Threads designs are listed in Madeira 40 wt. Rayon numbers, but we're not pushing any brand in particular, and you're more than welcome to use any colors/threads you like! There are various conversion tools online to translate between different thread brands and find similar colors. If you find yourself frequently translating from one brand to another, you might consider picking up their color cards for a few bucks to make the job easier (for example, here's the card for Madeira Rayon).
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Speaking of thread, you'll need some bobbin thread too. Your machine may be able to take prewound cardboard bobbins -- ask your dealer. If not, you can buy it by the spool and wind bobbins yourself.
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As you may have noticed, there's going to be a lot of thread in your life, so some sort of thread storage system is going to be useful. Perhaps a pegboard on the wall, if you have a dedicated sewing space?
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So that you can download embroidery designs online and then transfer them to your machine, make sure to have least one, preferably a couple, of the kind of storage media your machine takes -- USB stick, memory card, occasionally a floppy disk.
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It never hurts to have a stash of blanks to embroider on. Lots of sites sell blank items specifically for embroidery, but plain garments and linens from your favorite shops are fair game, too. Look for sturdy fabrics that will support embroidery well. You never know when you're going to need to stitch up a sweet and/or snarky tea towel for a last minute hostess gift.
Relatedly: Many embroiderers like to keep a stash of items for test-stitching -- a T-shirt, sweatshirt, terrycloth towel, pair of jeans, etc. that you're willing to sacrifice to embroidery experimentation.
More nifty tools for your embroidery studio:
• Cutting jump stitches will go much more smoothly with a pair of embroidery snips.
• Have plenty of extra needles around -- we use a 75/11 sharp most of the time.
• An air-erase pen for light fabrics (or several -- the things tend to wear out) and dressmaker's chalk for dark fabrics can be useful for marking embroidery placement.
•Masking tape is handy for lots of things -- for example, stick it to your fabric and write on it with a pen for a placement mark that's easily removable.
• A tape measure and a ruler, a nice sharp pair of fabric-only scissors, a seam ripper, and any other tools you use to sew.
As time goes on you'll discover more things that you find helpful -- but this should give you a solid start. Now stock up on patience, creativity, and an experimental spirit, and you'll be all set!
You can absolutely embroider towels in a 4x4 area. I actually have towels (that were given to me as a wedding gift and are hanging in my guest bath) that look as if they were done on a 4x4 hoop. I wanted to do names and things, and sometimes long names can get lost in the towel on a 4x4 space. I still use my 4x4 for monogramming kitchen and hand towels though.
http://godblessournest.blogspot.com/2012/08/my-embroidery-machines.html
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