Thursday, April 17, 2014

Image transfer tutorial - inspiration for the swap

AndStitchesSwap
Are you taking part in the Stitchy Swap? You can sign up until tomorrow! Today we have some inspiration for your stitchy swap pieces. Jane from Flaming Nora is giving us a tutorial on how to transfer images to fabric. I can think of so many fun things I'd like to do with this technique!

Thank you, Jane!



We all have a sense of place, of belonging to a particular place at a particular time. Very few of us haven’t moved at one time or another in our lives. Some of the places we have lived we return to more often in our memories.

A while ago I started work on a series of embroidered pieces that would explore this. The first of them is now finished; the second is in its beginning stages. It seemed perfect to share some of the processes I used to create “Growing up in the shadow of the Cathedral” while &stitches are exploring the theme of place.

Flaming Nora tutorial 1
The piece is about Janet and Jane who met on the first day at primary school and became inseparable. It is about the adventures we had growing up on an estate just below Guildford Cathedral. [Do check out the whole story of this piece; it is quite moving! -Carina]

Flaming Nora tutorial 2
I used some old photographs of Janet and my self, some from that time, some from when we were teenagers’ intent of conquering the world to compliment the embroidery. It is these that I would like to talk about here.

Flaming Nora tutorial 3
There are many methods of image transfer but this is the one that works for me. I use quilter’s freezer paper. I bought mine very reasonably via Amazon, but I think you can buy it in many places online and in large craft stores.

You should use a fine fabric, not too thick as you will be printing on to it using an ordinary inkjet printer. Once the fabric and the paper are bonded together it shouldn't be thicker than ordinary card stock. If it is you may have problems with it jamming up in the printer.

You place the paper on to the wrong side of your chosen fabric shiny side down. Carefully line the edges of the paper with the grain of the fabric. Otherwise your image may become distorted once printed. Iron the paper on to the fabric, I use quite a hot setting cover it with a press cloth if you are worried about delicate fabrics.
Flaming Nora tutorial 4
I used an old tablecloth, it is slightly stained and marked, but for me this just adds to the patina.
Trim your fabric so it is exactly the same size as the paper, re iron it at this point to make sure its all completely bonded and is laying flat. Then its time to print.

Once you have printed the images carefully peel the paper away from the back of the fabric. The utter joy of freezer paper is you can use it again and again. Now you are ready to embellish the picture however you want.

Flaming Nora tutorial 5
These images will be forming part of my next in embroidery about maps and memories.

Flaming Nora tutorial 6
I went with a simple date this time, but really the sky’s the limit. I’m sorely tempted to give every one embroidered dresses, Spanish Flamenco postcard style next time!


What are you stitching? Please share in the &Stitches Flickr group. We'd love to see it!

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