I know of a few embroidery designers who like to use printed fusible soluble sheets to stitch their patterns (onto fabric) instead of tracing the design directly onto the fabric itself as I do.
In fact I'm seeing it more and more so I thought I'd investigate.
The upside is to simply place the soluble sheet, which has a backing you peel off later, into your printer and print out the design you want to stitch. Then you can cut around the design area, peel off the backing and stick it directly onto your fabric background.
Sounds really good!
But I've also heard mention that the embroidery needle becomes gummy from the adhesive used to stick the printed design onto your fabric and regular wiping down of the needle is required.
Now I think for a small design or for people who embroider with medium to large stitches this may not be too much of a problem, but I stitch rather tiny and wondered just how annoying this technique may become?
The only answer was to give it a go, right?
This is one of my new July Stitchery Club patterns, stitched onto a beautiful linen background fabric...
...and these are the two types of soluble adhesive tracing papers I purchased to practice embroidering this same design onto a slightly different background.
I don't like wastage so I printed four copies of the design onto one A4 sheet of the Sticky Fabri-Solvi and if I don't use them all I may just give some away. (hint hint)
The background fabric I've chosen is one which has long tempted me, a fabric I think is well suited to this technique.
It's a very basic plain cardigan.
Three plain cardigans in fact!
I found them at K-Mart for a whopping $7 each (only joking, what a bargain!) and decided they would be perfect for my experiments.
First off I'm going to embroider the blue cardie as I'm rather partial to a blue cardie.
After printing the soluble stabiliser sheet I cut around one of the berry designs, peeled away the backing, and positioned it on the left shoulder of the cardigan.
Then I chose the embroidery threads...
Now all I need to do is embroider the design, then sit it in warm water and watch the fusible paper 'disappear'.
I'll let you know how I go with the gummy needle and whether I like this technique or not.
Have you used either of the soluble stabilisers I've purchased?
How did you find them to work with?
Mr E is home now for two weeks as it's the winter school holiday break so I may or many not be around much. I like to keep myself free in case he wants to do something, but as the Jeep is being repaired and we're waiting on parts from the USA it's doubtful we'll be travelling far.
I'm still admiring the beautiful bouquet he gave me yesterday.
Flowers, my husband at home and a bit of news I'll share soon...all's quite lovely in my world.
May your week be wonderful too!
hugs
