My newest red work project is, Snow Happy by Pearl Louise Krush. The pattern was in the Holiday 2013 issue of The Quilter Magazine.
This is a picture of the finished quilt from The Quilter magazine’s site.
I am trying something new with this project–Sticky Fabri-Solvy from Sulky. This product is a self-adhesive, fabric-like, water soluble stabilizer.
I ordered my product from Bird Brain Designs a while ago and I was anxious to try the technique described on their site. (http://www.birdbraindesigns.net/sticky-fabri-solvy). From the Bird Brain Designs site:
Do you hate to trace designs for your needlework projects? We have the solution for you – Printable Sticky Fabri-Solvy from Sulky! Print your design with your copier, stitch your design and dissolve the film away in a generous amount of warm water…EASY & ACCURATE.
Sticky Fabri-Solvy is a printable stablizer film in a full 8 1/2″ x 11″ size making printing more accurate! Just print your design on your home copier/printer right onto the sheet of Sticky Fabri-Solvy. Copy your design onto the “film” side of the Sticky Fabri-Solvy. Peel the paper backing away and finger press the printed film directly onto your fabric. Add your embroidery hoop and get stitching in just minutes! The easiest, fastest way to transfer designs for embroidery, applique and needle felting.
Remove the film easily from your finished embroidery. (See the photo above.) Place in your sink with running warm water adding a generous amount of warm water. You can “swish” your embroidery with your hand to hasten the dissolving process. I run clean water from the faucel over my design and dry flat on a bath towel.
Stitch as usual following the design on the printedSticky Fabri-Solvy. EASY! We tried it for RedWork embroidery on muslin and on wool for Needle Felting and Embroidery. When your stitching is completed, cut away excess Sticky Fabri-Solvy and soak the project in warm water to melt the remaining film away…..NEAT.
Sticky Fabri-Solvy is a full 8 1/2″ x 11″ so it fits into your copier paper tray perfectly making printing quick and easy and accurate.
This image is my project. The block on the right is my Kona White fabric with the design photocopied to the Sticky Fabri-Solvy product. The block on the left has been stitched. It is a bit wrinkly now as I found the stabilizer added enough body to the fabric that I didn’t need to hoop my project for stitching. It does mean however, that my project gets a bit wrinkly. 🙂 Removing the Sulky product from my finished project was easy. A little water in the sink and a bit of agitation and it was all gone!
I used DMC’s perle cotton No. 8 in colour 498. I love the perle cotton–no more separating floss threads–you can use it right off the ball. When I was in AZ, I found a new perle cotton thread by Presencia (No. 16). This product is finer than the DMC that I used in this project. I am planning to use it in a more detailed design where a thinner thread than the DMC perle cotton would be more appropriate.
For reference, I found the following video on You Tube that describes how to use the Sulky Fabri-Solvy product: “How to Transfer and Stabilize an Embroidery Pattern”.
In a second video, the deisgner describes and illustrates using a stabilizer–Pellon Designer’s Lite–to the back of your embroidery design. The stabilizer in this video is ironed in place, stays on the back of the design, and does not wash away. I have not yet tried this but I want to hang onto this information for future reference, so here it is: “Embroidery How to for Quilt Pattern, I Believe in Snowmen by Bunny Hill Designs” This video is also a great resource for how to get started with red work.
Good reference material. I don’t know if I could get used to not hooping it though, LOL. The snowmen scene is just adorable and I can’t wait to see how it looks when done.
Thanks! I’ve been contemplating doing exctlay that, while scratching my head and wondering if I could get away with such a thing or if the tabs would drag the top of the fabric down .So glad you posted your reply I’m going to try that!!!!By the way, after I washed my Lendas, I put them in the dryer on wrinkle release which is basically just cool air then took them out while still damp and hung them to finish drying. They still shrunk A LOT thankfully, just the right amount that I won’t have to get them hemmed:)