I cannot count my day complete
'Til needle, thread and fabric meet.
~Author Unknown

Sharing a common thread with those who love the art of hand embroidery

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Working With A Difficult Embroidery Transfer

I may stray from my needle once in a while to create something else in another medium, ............as in my last post......
but only for a short while...........
and then......I pick up my needle and do what I love the most.......
embroidery! 
This is a portion of a shirt that I am currently embroidering on for a dear friend.

I love the variety of butterflies



dragonflies

flowers, and leaves of this particular transfer. 
The fabric of this shirt is easy to embroider on............

This is also another shirt I am embroidering for my friend, but the print fabric is not so easy and not so cooperative. 


I wanted a particular rose transfer for this shirt, but because the transfer had black lines and the shirt itself is black plaid..........it was extremely hard for me to see the transfer.
If you have this same problem, but you still want to embroider a shirt ........or on fabric like this........

be very patient, sit in good light, and take a white or bright sewing thread and work a running stitch over the entire design.
( I have tried white transfer pencils, but the marks often fade away after much handling)
It takes longer to mark it with running thread, but you will then be able to see the transfer distinctly and it will stay while you handle it. 

You can then begin to work your embroidery
Depending on how you work your embroidery stitches.......you will not have to remove the running thread......as the floss will cover it........
however, if you do see the running thread through the embroidery,  carefully snip the running thread, avoiding the embroidery floss and pull out with tweezers. 

I think this came out very well 

and somewhat pretty

but as you can see, it is still not as vibrant and does not stand out as much as I would have liked it to.
In saying this.........make sure your floss colors do outshine the fabric pattern of the shirt.
So tell me.......have you ever had a difficult transfer or pattern to work with?

7 comments:

lil red hen said...

Sooo pretty! And lucky friends! I've tried working with transfers that were so old the paper was almost crumbling. So I put them on the copy machine and then I was able to use a transfer pen or carbon paper to mark the design onto my fabric.

Unknown said...

I can see that the fabric is darker but I think the embroidery design came out really nice! Some times I have to use a white marking pencil when quilting on dark areas and it does wipe off easy, so I only mark it right when I'm getting ready to quilt. Your friend will have such fun wearing the shirt!

mamasmercantile said...

What a lucky friend, the shirt is a real delight, a very pretty creation and such a great tip.

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

Back in the 70s it seemed I embroidered on every shirt my husband had. He was a truck driver and men's embroidered shirts were really big back then. I recently tried the basting stitch method you describe here and it worked pretty well. Your shirt turned out really well, however I'm with you, I would have wanted to use really stand out thread on that plaid. But as always, your stitching is perfection.
xx, Carol

A Colorful World said...

Love this idea...I have some of this type of embroidery thread and see how it would be great to do designs on shirts, tote bags, vests. The possibilities are endless!

letslearnembroidery said...

Great ideas!

Karen said...

I think the rose turned out beautifully, Kathleen!