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?