How to transfer an embroidery pattern

The simplest way to transfer an embroidery pattern to fabric is to tape the printed pattern to a sunny window or a light box, tape the fabric over it, and trace the lines with a sharp pencil or a water-soluble pen. That works whenever you can see the pattern through the fabric. For dark, heavy or stretchy fabric, use a printable stick-and-stitch sheet, the tissue paper method, carbon paper made for fabric, or prick and pounce.

Ask one question before you choose: will the finished piece be washed? Water-soluble pens and stick-and-stitch sheets only come out in water, so the fabric must be washable and the thread colors must not run.

Which transfer method to use for your fabric

Pens and pencils for marking fabric

Whatever you use, try it on a scrap of the same fabric first, including the step that is supposed to remove it. Draw fine lines that your stitches will cover. Inks that vanish in water, air or heat are not always gone from the fabric, and a faint ghost line can show up later.

Trace on a window or light box

1. Print the pattern at the size you want to stitch.
2. Tape the pattern to a sunny window, or lay it on a light box.
3. Tape the fabric over it with the weave straight.
4. Trace with a light hand, in smooth, continuous lines. Short, sketchy strokes build up a heavier, hairy line that is less precise.

If you are tracing in pencil on cotton or linen that will be washed, spray-starch the fabric and press it before you trace. The starch helps the pencil lines rinse out afterward.

Carbon paper (dressmaker's transfer paper)

1. Tape the fabric right side up on a hard, smooth surface.
2. Lay the carbon paper on it colored side down, with the pattern on top. Tape the layers so nothing can shift.
3. Trace the lines firmly with a ballpoint pen or a stylus, in long, continuous lines.

Use transfer paper made for fabric. It comes in several colors, commonly white, yellow, red, blue and gray. Pick one that contrasts with the cloth: white or yellow on dark fabric, blue or gray on light.

Expect a softer line than you get from tracing. Dressmaker's carbon is made for marking sewing patterns, not fine detail, so the line can be thick or faint, and it can smear and rub off as you handle the work. Go over a weak line with a pencil. Some of these lines do not come out easily, so plan to cover them with stitches unless the package says they wash out and your scrap agrees.

Iron-on transfer pen or pencil with a mirrored print

Ironing flips the design, so the tracing has to be reversed or any lettering will read backward.

1. Print the pattern mirrored. If you only have a normal print, turn it face down on a white surface and trace the lines onto the back of the paper.
2. Go over the mirrored lines with the iron-on transfer pen or pencil. Keep the lines as thin as you can.
3. Press the fabric smooth. Lay the paper ink side down on it and pin it in place.
4. Press with a dry iron at the setting for your fabric, for the time given on the pen's package. Set the iron straight down, lift it and move on. Do not slide it, or you get shadows and double lines.
5. Unpin one corner and check the transfer before you take the paper off.

The lines are usually permanent, so your stitches must cover them, and an iron-on cannot be undone. On fabric that needs a low iron setting, the transfer takes much longer.

Stick-and-stitch printable sheets

This is a thin, sticky, printable sheet that dissolves in water. It is sold as stick-and-stitch or as sticky wash-away stabilizer.

1. Print or draw the pattern on the fabric-like side of the sheet. Use your printer's lightest (draft) setting so the sheet is not soaked with ink.
2. Cut around the design, peel off the paper backing and smooth the sheet onto the fabric. You can lift it and move it before you start stitching.
3. Put it in the hoop with the sheet reaching past the hoop's edge, and stitch through the sheet and the fabric together.
4. Wash the sheet away as the package directs. One maker says to hold the piece under warm running water and rub gently with your fingers until the sheet dissolves, and not to leave it sitting in a bowl, so leftover printer ink is carried away instead of settling into the fabric.
5. Dry the piece flat on a towel.

No mirroring is needed, and it works where tracing does not: dark cotton, T-shirts, sweaters and canvas shoes. The limits: the sheet stiffens the fabric and takes a little more push to stitch through, the needle can get gummy (run it through a needle emery now and then), and the finished piece has to be washed. Keep it for washable fabric and colorfast thread, not silk, wool or anything that cannot get wet.

Tissue paper method

1. Trace the pattern onto one thin sheet of tissue paper, the kind used for gift wrapping, with a fine-tipped pen.
2. Pin or baste the paper to the fabric.
3. Thread a needle with ordinary sewing thread and do not knot it. Stitch along every line through the paper and the fabric with small running stitches. Make them smaller and closer on curves and details.
4. Run the eye end of a needle along the stitched lines to split the paper, then pull the paper away gently. Keep it low and folded back on itself so the stitches are not pulled up. Pick out the last scraps with tweezers.

Embroider over the guide stitches, or pick them out as you go. Nothing has to be washed out and nothing rubs off, which makes this a good method for dark fabric, felted wool and fabric that cannot get wet. The price is time: you stitch the design twice.

Prick and pounce

This method has been around for a long time, and it is still used because it is reliable. It works well on dark fabric, on fabric with a pile such as velvet, and for large, detailed designs.

1. Trace or print the pattern on sturdy tracing paper or vellum.
2. Prick small holes along every line with a fine needle, about 1/16 inch (1.5 mm) apart. Pushing the eye of the needle into a cork gives you a handle.
3. Pin the pricked pattern to the fabric, smooth side up.
4. Roll a scrap of felt into a tight roll, dip the end in pounce powder and rub it lightly over the holes. Powdered charcoal is the traditional dark pounce. A white powder such as cornstarch shows on dark fabric.
5. Lift the paper straight up. Join the dots with a pencil, or a white pencil on dark fabric, because the powder does not stay put by itself.
6. Shake or flick off the loose powder.

How to transfer a pattern to dark fabric

• If light still passes through the fabric, a bright light box may be all you need. Trace with a white marking pen or pencil. A white gel pen gives a line that does not smudge off, but it may not wash out completely, so use single light strokes and cover them with stitches.
• If no light passes through, use a stick-and-stitch sheet on washable fabric, or the tissue paper method, or prick and pounce with white powder.
• White or yellow carbon paper works, but on dark fabric the line can be faint or smudgy. Go over it with a white pencil.
• Chalk pencil lines rub off as you stitch. Redraw them, or pick another method.

Common problems

• The traced lines are faint or wobbly. Use a brighter light and tape both layers down so nothing shifts.
• The design came out backward. Only iron-on methods need a mirrored pattern. Tracing, carbon paper, stick-and-stitch and tissue paper all use the pattern the normal way around.
• The marks will not wash out. Water-soluble marks that were ironed, or laundered before a plain-water rinse, can be set for good. Cover the lines with stitches.
• Blue lines came back when the piece dried. Rinse again in plain water, and keep the iron away until they are gone.
• The lines disappeared before you finished. Air-erasable ink and chalk do not last. Retrace in sections or switch tools.
• Printer ink tinted the fabric after rinsing. Print on the lightest setting next time, and rinse under running water instead of soaking.
• The pattern is the wrong size. Measure the printed design against your hoop before you trace it.

Once the design is on the fabric, see how to start for hooping and first stitches, or how to embroider on clothes if the fabric is a garment. When the stitching is done, how to wash covers rinsing out the marks.