{"id":9636,"date":"2016-02-16T09:08:20","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T09:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=9636"},"modified":"2016-02-23T21:38:15","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T21:38:15","slug":"transferring-designs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2016\/02\/16\/transferring-designs\/","title":{"rendered":"Transferring Designs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Any book on embroidery will usually tell you about methods for transferring designs to the fabric. In fact, I think some of them are guilty of plagiarism – although from whom, in the best traditions of the circular firing squad, it would be hard to know.<\/p>\n

Last week there was a discussion on Twitter relating to the Great Lady’s Magazine Stitch Off<\/a> and particularly concerned with transferring the design once you’d chosen it, and I suddenly realised that not one of my shelf (ahem, shelves<\/em>!) of embroidery books actually suggested which method might be most appropriate when, or what hazards or difficulties they present.<\/p>\n

So I thought I would pull together what I’ve picked up and found out over the years…<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Unicorn<\/p><\/div>\n

First, Prick and Pounce<\/strong>. This is one of the oldest methods – almost certainly the only one available to the Lady’s Magazine subscribers. I’ve come to it relatively recently, but I use it a lot. It’s not good when my tennis elbow flares up, because pricking holes in the pattern is a slow and repetitive business, perfectly designed to produce a repetitive strain injury. It’s also not good – as I discovered with the pashmina<\/a> for the Stitch Off – with a mobile fabric which is a little widely sett for the thickness of the constituent yarns. I had to reinstate the lines with a dressmaker’s chalk, which wasn’t nearly as precise as I would have liked!<\/p>\n

\"Glittering<\/a>

Glittering Gentleman’s Nightcap – Month One<\/p><\/div>\n

Next, the Light Box<\/strong> method. Actually, not having a light box, it’s a “tape it to the window and do your best” method. I did this with the Gentleman’s Glittering Nightcap<\/a>, and it worked fairly well, but it’s limited to the size of your window or lightbox, whereas Prick and Pounce is limited by the size of your table! I also become nervous when using indelible ink such as the (recommended and provided) Pigma pen. I’m always terrified of inadvertently drawing a line somewhere I can’t cover it.<\/p>\n

\"Five<\/a>

Five Flats on the Piano Shawl<\/p><\/div>\n

Which leads me on to a caution. I’ve used quilter’s “disappearing” felt pens<\/strong> instead in the past, and had one of the scariest embroidery experiences I’ve ever had. First of all, the lines didn’t last quite long enough for a hand stitcher, and then…<\/p>\n

When I washed the piece, the lines reappeared, and what’s more, they kept coming back. I can’t remember what it took to be rid of them, but certainly some prolonged soaking in detergent was involved.<\/p>\n

Hair-raising doesn’t begin to describe it, and as mine is nearly a yard long, that’s no joke!<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A Corner Of The Map Of Amarna<\/p><\/div>\n

I used a Transfer Pencil<\/strong> for the Map of Amarna<\/a>. This works nicely – provided you remember to reverse the pattern if it needs it! – if the fabric is a natural fibre. However, it can be hard to keep the transfer clean as you make it, and then there is a risk that you will transfer indelible smudges to the fabric.<\/p>\n

I’ve also found that the lines sometimes spread as they transfer, which may or may not be a problem, depending on how detailed the design, and how much unembroidered fabric may be showing. As it always says on the packaging – test the whole process on your fabric before using it for anything important!<\/p>\n

\"Transferring<\/a>

Transferring the Design<\/p><\/div>\n

In the case of a really tricky fabric, such as the velvet for the Camberwell Panel<\/a>, Running Stitch<\/strong> through tissue paper works really well. It’s rather time consuming, but then, I don’t think any method is especially swift.<\/p>\n

\"Scarf<\/a>

Scarf Motif – CloseUp<\/p><\/div>\n

There are soluble fabrics<\/strong> which I know many stitchers recommend, but I’ve only worked one piece<\/a> using it, and the design drawn on the soluble film was hard to see, so I can’t describe it as an unalloyed success.<\/p>\n

In truth, a stable natural fabric such as linen will probably happily accept anything thing you do, and the fragile, “difficult” ones will each require a different response. The trick is to remember to pause before starting, to make sure you pick a sensible method for the fabric and the design!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any book on embroidery will usually tell you about methods for transferring designs to the fabric. In fact, I think some of them are guilty of plagiarism – although from whom, in the best traditions of the circular firing squad, it would be hard to know. Last week there was a discussion on Twitter relating… Continue Reading Transferring Designs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[171,38],"class_list":["post-9636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-posts","tag-stitch-off","tag-transfers","radius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9636"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9677,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636\/revisions\/9677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}