Hello everyone
It has been some time since I posted, but that is because I have been very busy working on something on your behalf! Do you dislike tracing your own outlines? That slightly wobbly line that you get no matter which method of tracing you use or how hard you try to keep a steady hand – it is just never the same as a nice pre-printed outline? Then this is the solution for you read on……….
For many years I have been trying to find a company who could manufacture iron on embroidery transfers. They were used extensively in the good old days – if one wanted to order an embroidery pattern you could order the iron on transfer and fabric by mail order, but that all seems to have changed and they are now only produced by a few select companies, or occasionally provided at the back of a book. Again many of the transfers bleed when ironed on to the fabric or produce an unsightly thick line which is difficult to cover with your stitching.
When I created the new online DIGITAL STORE this year, I had a list of motives that I wanted to achieve: One of them was to save you the customer on shipping costs and delays, by making my embroidery patterns instantly available. This was easily achieved by providing a great source of digital patterns , but then it occurred to me that if you were new to embroidery and did not have a supply (“stitching stash”) of fabric, needles, hoops and threads on hand , would you know where to get them and what you should buy? So I got in touch with as many online shops around the world as I could and asked if they wanted to be listed as a supplier on my site and if they were prepared to keep stock of the materials needed for my patterns. The result was a list of global stockists who can supply the materials in your own country.
The next problem was how to overcome the problem of providing ready printed outlines on fabric without shipping. I know many of you dislike tracing your own outline, because I receive many emails to this effect! The answer of course was to provide iron on transfers, but where to find a manufacturer and how to make them more accessible to you the customer. This is what I have been working on for the last few weeks.
After much searching, and samples going backwards and forwards, and testing out of the samples, I finally found a company that can produce good quality iron on embroidery transfers with a fine line and crisp print that will ensure accurate results in your stitching. We put them through rigorous testing, washed, ironed, left them in the sun for days and they passed all the tests! I am thrilled to let you know that very soon in the next week or so these transfers will be available for sale in the Etsy store. Yes you will still have to wait for them to be shipped, but once you have the transfers in your stash, you will be able to purchase a digital pattern for any of those transfers, whenever you feel like it, iron the transfer on to your fabric and be stitching in minutes!
The iron on transfers will be available in packs – so you can purchase a pack of birds & butterflies, or flowers etc, – there is an iron on transfer for every digital pattern available (at present) in the shop. There will also be a pack available for each of my last four books and I hope to add to this in time. For example any of you who are in possession of my new book Whitework With Colour will be able to purchase a pack of transfers for every single project in the book.
I will give you more detail on the packs when they are available. I am very excited by this new addition to the collection and hope they are going to make your life so much easier! Please let me know your thoughts it is always useful to receive feedback. Till next time, wherever you are in the world, have a wonderful weekend and many happy hours of stitching!
Trish