Hand embroidery is fast becoming a very popular hobby and there are many companies that sell iron on designs, such as Sublime Stitching. These ready-made iron on designs are fun and easy to use, but what if you’d like more freedom in creating your designs. Perhaps you’d like a larger version, or you’d like a completely different design than what is available, or maybe you’d even like to learn to combine designs to form a more complex piece. This is simple to accomplish and you’ll discover that there are no limits to the kinds of designs you can make.
If you’d like to use clipart or coloring pages as a basis for making your own embroidery designs, there are a few simple supplies you will need. It will be convenient if you have a program to re-size and edit the picture files, and you’ll want a printer. Beyond your computer needs, you’ll have to have tracing paper and a iron on transfer pencil. These pencils can be purchased at many sites online, and they can sometimes be found in stores such as JoAnn Fabrics, and Hobby Lobby. There are also iron on transfer markers available, but unless you’d like one that is white to transfer to black fabric, I don’t recommend them, as the black markers make transfers that are much too thick and dark and difficult to cover over in the embroidery process. They also aren’t removable after your project is finished, while the pencil transfer marks usually wash out of most fabrics.
Other than these simple supplies, you won’t have to invest in anything other than the regular fabric and thread for your project to begin adapting your own embroidery designs. The first step is using Google or your favorite search engine to find a design you’d like to adapt. Choose the “Image” option for your search and type in your key word. Perhaps you’d like to embroider a tattoo style design. You would search for “skull tattoo flash” or whatever it is that you’d like to search for. If you’d like to find simply drawn cartoon style pictures, add the word “coloring” to your search, and you will turn up lots of coloring pages. Coloring pages are excellent for embroidery designs because they are already simplified to their basic shapes and have strong outlines that are ideal for embroidering.
After you’ve found the picture you’d like to use, save it to your computer and edit in your favorite picture editing software so it is the right size for your project. I find that after I print my picture out, it’s easiest for me to work on tracing it when I tape it to the table and tape the tracing paper over it. If you have a steadier hand than I do, you can skip this step. Trace your picture onto your tracing paper using a regular pencil. This is the perfect time to change things about the design. Perhaps you’d like to leave an element out, or change its shape slightly. If you’ve chosen a photograph, now is the time to simplify the lines to adapt the picture to embroidery. You can leave shading and other details out and use just the basic lines for your transfer. Then, as you embroider your design, you can refer to the original photo and use your stitching to indicate shading and detail.
After you’ve perfected your design with your tracing, flip the paper and go over all the lines on the back with your iron on transfer pencil. One caution at this stage, you’ll want to have scrap paper under your tracing paper as you work, because the regular pencil will rub off onto what’s underneath it. You are using the transfer pencil on the back of the tracing because it will be reversed when you iron it onto your fabric. Using the back of the tracing for the iron on will automatically make the design come out the right way on the finished project. This is especially important for lettering and numbers. After going over the whole design with the transfer pencil, all you have to do is decide on your placement for the design on the fabric and follow the manufacturer’s instructions that come with your pencil for ironing it on. Don’t forget to put it transfer pencil side down on your fabric!
When you use this tracing paper method, it is easy to combine elements from two or three different sources, add lettering or your signature, or further personalize clip art. For instance, maybe you’d like to embroider a coat of arms design with a puppy on the shield and your friend’s name in a banner underneath. First find a shield and banner that you like, no matter what the design inside it is. Then find a puppy drawing that you think is appropriate. After sizing them to work together, simply trace the outline of the shield and banner, center them over the puppy and trace him in the shield. You could draw in some tufts of grass or a blanket to blend the two designs. Then add your friend’s name to the banner, following the flow of the shape. In this way, you can have endless possibilities of design, even if you don’t enjoy drawing freehand.
Of course, if you’d rather draw your design completely from scratch, you can skip the transfer pencil and just use a wash out marker like the ones quilters use to draw directly on the fabric. Make sure that it is the kind that you wash out, though, and not the kind that fades on it’s own, or you may find your design gone before your embroidery is finished.
I would like to note that most of the pictures and designs you find online are copyrighted. This means that you should never use them in a commercial way, such as selling your products or the iron on designs. Just because you’ve embroidered it does not make a design your own unless it is completely your own drawing. If you’d like to find copy-right free images, add “copy-right free” to the terms in your initial image search. Unless otherwise stated, you should assume that someone else owns the right to drawings and photos you find online, and if you’re going to use them for embroidery, they should only be for your own personal use.
Using this technique can save you a lot of money if you embroider quite often, but more importantly, you will gain control of the designs you create and will be able to make all sorts of very personalized gifts and projects. If you can’t find just the right image in ready made iron on designs consider searching for that unique subject and creating your own design to bring to life with thread.
