Sunday 27 June 2010

Eureka!

I just made this wonderful new discovery!
It is possible to print directly onto the embroidery stabilizer. Yes, really
This is what I did:

I cut a piece of stabilizer and a piece of freezer paper to exactly A4 size (to make sure it doesn't get eaten by the printer) and ironed the two together.

I then put it in the printer with the stabilizer (print side) facing down and printed as normal. I don't have the best printer in the world so I was prepared for things to go terribly wrong here, but everything worked out perfectly.

I peeled the stabilizer off and voila: A perfect embroidery-pattern ready to start stitching!

I made a sketch of the photo because I made a few changes to the original picture, but it is possible to print the photo directly onto the stabilizer too.

Now no more light boxes and window tracings for me! Yippee!! (You can see why I was looking for an easier way to copy the picture, can't you?)

As you probably know by now, I am a completely self-taught embroiderer. Except for some help from my mother and grandmother when I was still small, I never had any formal embroidery training. Now you can understand why I am so thrilled with this discovery - I figured it all out by myself and it is going to make my life a lot easier.

All I need now is for someone to tell me this is the way everybody else does it, and I have been the only one living behind a rock for the past 20 years...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok- this is cool! I am self taught as well and will use this technique. Thanks for posting it!

tongfengdemao said...

I saw your comment on Mary Corbet's site and had to come look. I figured this out (by myself) just recently, too. I had a tiny 1" portrait I wanted to do of my husband on my Blessings sampler and I can't draw faces. Also the fabric weave prevented detail. So I printed it on a piece of soluble stabilizer. It came out very well. I didn't know this type of thing was done before, either.

~Faith
Sew Many Blessings
Needle & Fabric Art

kathi said...

Okay, you are brilliant. I have been trying to figure out how to do this and just never thought of the freezer paper, even though I've used it for other applications. Thanks.

Claudia/Ompompali said...

This is a grand idea - but I have one question: did you embroider directly onto the stabilizer and wash it away afterwards? Thanks for sahring the idea and greetings from Germany

Unknown said...

Hi Claudia
Yes I put the stabilizer over the actual fabric in the hoop and embroidered straight onto the stabilizer. When I finished I cut away most of the excess and then soaked it in water and the stabilizer just dissappeared. It worked very easy - I was most impressed and will definitely do it this way again!
Ansie

hron said...

Hi . . . I've been doing a wee bit different process with great results. I cut my stabilizer to 8-1/2x11 and then hand-smooth it to an 8-1/2x11 sheet that are marketed as "full-page label" sheets. Then I run that through my printer. The full-page label sheets are relatively cheap and it eliminates the ironing you have with freezer paper. Works great!!!

Claudia/Ompompali said...

Thank you Ansie for your reply and your explanations. That helps a lot! Now I will have a go at it. Have a good day!