Sunday, January 7, 2018

Japanese Landscape - Tracing on Fabric and Felt

With my fabric stretched on the frame, I'm ready to start. Here are all my materials. Except for the embroidery tools that I already owned, I bought all the metal threads, felt and fabric from Alison Cole. In order to prepare, last year I made a colored drawing of the design and traced all the different pieces as well as the design itself on tracing paper.


To transfer the design onto the fabric, I used the same method as Pearl Butterfly which is a dressmaker's carbon paper by Clover. Before starting, I tried out different sheets to pick a color that will show up best against my fabric. I ended up going with the yellow.


I found the center of my fabric and positioned the outline as straight as I could. Below the frame is 2" binder which gives me a firm surface to draw on.


I then drew over the lines using a stylus, making sure to be very firm so the carbon transfers onto my fabric.


Here is the design transferred onto the fabric. It is very faint and I had a very hard time seeing it. I think I will try a different method next time. Natalie has offered to show me the prick and pounce method. I will take her up on her offer for the next project.

If you look very closely you'll notice that the sky is on the right side. I later realized that I traced the design on the wrong side (too eager to start). If this ever happens to you, the carbon can be brushed off using a soft brush. So no harm no foul, just brush it off and try again.


I tried to use the same transfer method for the felt, but the carbon wouldn't transfer. The felt was too soft.


I ended up using a ball point pen and just went over the outline hard enough to pierce the transfer paper creating guide lines that I later went over using a pen. Basically I used a rough version of the prick and pounce method.


3 comments:

  1. Felt is a real trial to transfer design lines to, and I'm afraid I have no better solution than the one you arrived at!

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  2. Felt is tricky! I’ll let you know what the RSN has to say on it later this year. But from sticky beaking at other students I think they cut out the design in paper and use that, a bit like dress making.

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  3. Maybe try Frixon pens. The ink disappears with the heat of an iron. You can get Frixon pens at any office supply store. I use them for quilting a lot.

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