There are many kits available where the design is pre-printed onto the fabric such as this one. But knowing how to transfer an embroidery design onto fabric gives many more options and isn’t as difficult as you think. Here are my top tips for transferring embroidery patterns:

• Have the fabric super tight in the hoop. It’s really hard to trace accurately if the fabric in the hoop is a bit loose. The pen will catch on the warp and weft threads and the design will end up looking a little wonky. To read my tips about how to get fabric taut in the hoop, have a look here.

• Use a erasable pen. You can use any pen or pencil for transferring a design onto fabric but knowing that you can erase any mistakes really helps when tracing. This blog post covers the different erasable pen options, and this post outlines why heat erasable pens are magic.

• Trace just the crucial elements. Some patterns have a lot of detail and it isn’t always necessary to trace it all. For example a thin stem or branch, you might not need to trace both sides of the outline, instead trace one line in the centre.

• Keep an eye on the position of the hoop. Whatever method used to trace the pattern, the hoop will move during the tracing process. I recommend checking the positioning after tracing each element to make sure the final traced design doesn’t end up wonky.

• Don’t panic if you go wrong. The fabric has 2 sides to it and if you do go wrong then flip the fabric over and have a second attempt.

There are step by step instructions on how to trace from a digital embroidery pattern and how to trace from a paper embroidery pattern along with lots of other embroidery tips on my blog.

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