A neat trick for transfering images to fabric!

I've been trying all sorts of ways to get images onto fabric so I can embroider them for the Adorn purses. The images start as a sketch on the computer and are printed out to be transferred to the fabric. It shouldn't be too difficult a process you'd think...

I did some searching around on the internet and it seemed like the way to go was a transfer pencil. Draw your image with it on paper, then put the paper on the fabric and iron it and the pencil marks will transfer to the fabric. Great!

Except the olive coloured fabric I've been using DID NOT like the transfer pencil I bought, so I was at a bit of a loss as to how to do it and tried lots of different things. The first few ended up being done by piercing holes with a pin around the outline of the image on paper, then rubbing over these with a marker until a tiny dot went through onto the paper. It was effective, but time consuming. Unfortunately on the linen I just started using, the marker bled waaaay too much, so that option didn't work. The transfer pencil worked ok on that though. The problem with that was my ability to trace the image accurately on the back of the paper.

So I decided to just draw over the print and go from there. And when I put the paper on the fabric and ironed it, something I didn't quite expect happened. The transfer pencil transfered and so did the black toner from the (LASER! don't think inkjet will work)printer!

A few more printouts and ironings later and it works a treat!

The process goes like this:

1. Draw the image on the computer.


2. Flip it since I want a mirror image of the print out.


3. Print the image with as much toner as possible.


4. Place it face down on the fabric and put a hot iron on it for around 30 seconds all up. I lift a corner of the paper to check its progress after about 15 seconds and keep doing that til I'm happy. Any spots that get missed are easily filled in with a fabric marker.

I should have known this may happen since toner binds to things when heated, but it didn't occur to me so I'm glad I made this accidental discovery!

Here's one I prepared earlier!

A bit of a belated thank you!

I meant to post this a few days ago. The Adorn purses are popping up in all sorts of places at the moment! I just wanted to say a big, big thank you to Dikla from Israel for featuring my Etsy store on her fantastic blog for the past few days. There's a tonne of really cool stuff on there, so go check it out!

In other news, I just found out that an adorn purse made it to the front page of etsy for the THIRD time in about the last week! YIKES! What's that saying about 'it never rains'?? They have been viewed and favourited a lot of times - just got to wait for the right person to come along and buy them I guess.

And in terms of work, yesterday I made a light box for photographing the small stuff. First test photos came out great and looked like they'd save me a tonne of time with lightening up shadows/backgrounds in photoshop. So today, I finished off 8 Travelites, put them in the light box and took 36 photos in the heat under the lamp... And all the photos are terrible!!!! I really like the colour orange, but not when it's where a white background should be! So I then spent the next several hours playing with 3 different lamps in various configuations and nothing came out right.

So tomorrow, I'll take it outside and see if that helps. It will be great if it does, though I'll have to get used to photographing in daylight hours instead of the middle of the night. I love just getting something finished, photographed and listed straight away, hence the midnight photoshoots, but lately I've been spending more time touching up photos than actually making the item, so I'm really hoping the lightbox will cut that time right down.

And speaking of work and purses, I've got one to finish off, so I should get back to it!

Again!!!?!!!

No, you're not imagining things, this post is almost exactly the same as the last one. ONE OF MY PURSES IS ON THE FRONT PAGE OF ETSY RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soooo cool!



Ohhhh I just caught it! I refreshed and it's gone again. Phew! So glad to have seen it!

I'd call it famous!!!!!!!

Ok, so I've been talking about Etsy treasuries just a little bit lately... And here I go again.

ONE OF MY PURSES IS ON THE FRONT PAGE OF ETSY RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soooo cool!



Would it be wrong to sit and stare at it for the next few hours (I think they stay up that long) while it's up??

Oh wow again!

I just found another one of my purses in another Etsy treasury!. Etsy people, you rock my world! Thank you Walrustusk!



As always it won't be up for long, but the link at the moment is:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=39838

Ohhhhh wow!!

I'm so excited right now! The lovely Simone from Huismus picked one of my adorn purses for her treasury on Etsy! It's one of the prettiest treasuries I've seen so I'm incredibly flattered.



It won't be up for long, but the link at the moment is: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=40003

Hey Nikki, I had another idea!

Hey Nikki, I thought this may interest you, with your abundance of seam rippers and all!

I find it a bit annoying that my industrial sewing machine doesn't have a thread cutter of ANY kind. Despite the fact that I own too many pairs of scissors, there are never any right there when I need them. So for the past few days I've been dreaming of how I could add a thread cutter to my machine. And tonight, the idea struck!



So far it works a treat! It may get in the way when sewing around the top of a nappy bag or something, but hey, sticky tape is easily replaced.

And more good news - one of the customs that has been weighing me down is finally finished. Seems like it took forever, but gee I feel better now it's done! Can't remember how many to go since every time I cross one off the list, I seem to add another one.

Also itching now to make a new wallet with some adorn action. And a tote. Must do customs first. Must do customs first. Must do customs first...

PS. Yes, the sewing machine is threaded kinda weird. But that's what you've got to do when half the tension assembly is missing!

Two in a row!

I got a second treasury! As per last time, since it expires after a couple of days, I thought a screenshot was in order:



I really hope this one makes the front page!

Funnily enough, I was looking for things along the same lines as my adorn work, but it is hard to find. Either I'm not good at searching, or it's not being done much which is really good news for me.

For the moment, you can go view it on etsy if you click here.