A better line, a better embroidery

The line, the line, the line. As a designer I'm always in the look for new ways to create or improve processes so it hasn't escaped me that a nice clean line is one the best secrets to get almost perfect results in embroidery.

A traced line that wiggles on the fabric or that is too wide to know where to prick your needle is like a tiny bandit playing pranks on you, making it hard to stitch as you'd like to.

So to keep these villain lines at bay I have the habit now of using templates for transferring almost all of my designs to fabric.

The same thing happens with cutting felt shapes for appliqueing. While it'd be faster to use freezer paper, I can't find any here in Santiago so I was forced to be more creative. I use double-sided tape and print my designs on copy paper. And it feels so good to cut through a nice printed line! (Oh yes, I find delight in small things like this!)

I'm using the Nine Tiles hand appliqué pattern (pillow shown below). For this embroidery I'm working with Tile Nº2 (Wreath). In the video you can see that I've printed the templates on two sheets of papers—one on thick paper and the other plain copy paper. The thick paper is for the stencil (the one I use to trace the design on the fabric) and the copy paper is for cutting the felt.

In both cases following the line is key. The precision knife and the small scissors are crucial!

Enjoy the video!