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Felt is an excellent material for making your own crafts! It’s simple to work with and available in a range of colors. Felt can also be used in kid’s crafts. To add detail to your next project, consider embroidering a motif on the felt.
You will learn how to trace felt for stitching in this post. To do this, you can draw a sketch on felt in various ways, and one of them may be your favorite. I will also describe techniques for how to transfer an image onto felt.
See Also: How to Enlarge or Reduce the Size of Felt Patterns
The best approach can be decided based on the complexity of the transferred design or the color of the felt utilized.
You can use pencils and self-erasing markers to draw on felt, but you can also use different pens. I recommend checking your tracing tool on a piece of cloth before moving on to actual tracing.
How to Make a Trace on Felt for Embroidery?
How do you trace embroidery designs to felt and add embroidery details to your felt projects? Basically, you can use 3 methods to trace on felt for embroidery. The easiest method you can use to make marks on felt for embroidery is to use tracing paper.
See Also: How to Draw and Cut Felt – Tips for Felt Crafts Beginners
After drawing the design on tracing paper, you need to sew it through to transfer the design. As with all sewing techniques, practice gets better. Pay attention to your stitch size, length, and consistency. If you’re not satisfied with the finish of your stitches, you can remove the stitch and start over.
What are the Materials Required for Making Marks on Felt?
Print your template on a piece of paper or copy it onto freezer paper before you start making marks on the felt. The materials to be used to make marks on the felt are as follows:
- Felt – a piece slightly larger than your template size
- Pointed scissors (5 1/2 inch embroidery scissors)
- Embroidery thread to match
- Hand sewing needle
- A marking tool on the felt
- Tracing of baking paper for the tracing paper technique
Trace Drawing Techniques and Steps on Felt
Because felt is opaque, some more common transfer methods, such as using a lightbox or tracing over a window, will obviously not work on felt. In the drawing method, you draw the pattern you want to embroider directly with a fabric pen or other marker marking the felt.
It’s a simple technique if you can copy the designs well on the piece of felt. Depending on the pen you’re using, you might need to make sure the thread completely covers the design, so the traced line isn’t visible after you’re done.
You can easily use this method for simple line designs where a minor flaw is not essential. However, it can be challenging to use in some designs where precision is critical.
- Have an existing template.
- Trace the shape onto the felt, following the template and using a pencil.
- Embroider the design.
Using the Template Technique
In the stencil technique, you make your own stencil to reproduce a design on felt for embroidery. First, you need to draw or print the original design on a piece of paper. Next, cut out the lines you want to trace and turn the paper into a stencil.
You can make the lines you want to trace easier with small pointed scissors or a utility knife cutter. Next, you follow the template’s openings. If you’re using freezer paper, you can iron it over your piece of felt before you start tracing.
You can follow the steps below for the stencil technique:
- Print or draw the template on a sheet of paper or freezer paper.
- Cut the lines you want to trace.
- Trace the pattern (stencil) onto the felt through the openings with a fabric marker or any other pen available.
- Embroider the design.
Using Tracing or Baking Paper Technique
The tracing or baking paper technique requires drawing the pattern onto a baking sheet or tracing paper. The paper should be transparent and easily tearable. Then you embroider the pattern on the paper. You end up tearing or removing the paper.
The advantage of the tracing or baking paper technique is that there will be no pencil marks on the felt. This method is perfect for more complex embroidery. Beware, however, that sometimes removing the paper can be cumbersome.
Instead of removing the paper in large pieces, you can try to remove it in small sections. You can use tweezers for the small pieces of paper that are under the seam. You can also help yourself by piercing the paper with a needle.
This method is equally suitable for dark or black felt embroidery. The design is not directly on felt but on tracing paper. That’s why the template is always visible.
To utilize the tracing or baking paper technique, follow the steps below:
- Have an existing template.
- Draw the template on tracing or baking paper.
- Cut out the traced pattern.
- Pin the design to the right side of the felt by matching the pattern.
- Trace the details onto the lines with paper and felt.
- Gently remove or tear the tracing paper.
Using the Iron-On Transfer Technique for Inkjet Printers
This method is not just for transferring a basic embroidery pattern made up of lines. Instead, this method is for transferring color pictures and images to your felt. Paper works by transferring a plastic film onto the felt.
This film will then leave a plastic-like feel on your felt surface. So if you just want to transfer a basic embroidery design onto felt, don’t use this method. However, if you’re going to transfer colorful pictures to felt, try this iron-on transfer paper!
This approach involves transferring an image to felt. In contrast to earlier techniques, it seeks to represent a complete image with all colors rather than just a line pattern. To make it work, you’ll need a color inkjet printer and iron-on transfer paper.
The transfer will leave a plastic-like film on the felt. Therefore, you can see it as a particular method in which the entire image is displayed on felt. This technique can be fun for your extraordinary creations!
To use the transfer with printer technique, you can follow the steps below:
- Transfer designs to felt.
- Transfer paper will, of course, come with instructions. Still, the basic idea is to print your color image on this particular paper using your inkjet printer.
- Cut around your image, leaving at least a 1/4″ – 3/8″ border.
- Place the cut image face down on the felt. White or light-colored felt is recommended.
- Iron according to package instructions.
- Peel off the paper quickly and carefully. Your printed image is now transferred to felt.
- Your transferred image is now ready to be embellished with embroidery stitches, beads, sequins, or buttons.
- You can now cut out this embellished image and use it in any number of different projects. It can be used as an ornament, used as an applique patch, turned into a magnet, used as a brooch.
