Minden Hills Cultural Centre

The beauty of embroidery is that you can stitch anything you like. Find an image, trace it, stitch it! You can also write or draw directly onto fabric if you prefer to do things freehand. In this post we’ll look at how to transfer your a design onto fabric.

Example mottoes
Thank you to everyone who commented on our facebook and instagram posts asking for motto suggestions. Here are all of your wonderful mottoes:

Step 1: Create or find an image/text to trace
Sketch your motto out on a piece of paper or type it out on a computer in your chosen font. You can also do a quick google search to see if there are any existing images of your motto you can use as a template. I started with a sketch and then finalized the design on a computer.

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Step 2: Trace onto paper (or print if you have a printer)

1. Scale: Make sure you’re happy with the size of your text, keeping in mind how big you want your finished magnet to be
2. Trace: Hold paper against the computer screen and trace it with a pencil very lightly
3. Retrace: Go over your pencil lines with a pen
4. Cut around the border so your pattern is the size that your magnet will be and you’re good to go!
   

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Step 3: Trace onto fabric ⛅

1. Cut out a square of fabric – it should be about 2 inches larger than your hoop on all sides
2. Tape your paper pattern to the window
3. Tape fabric to the window
4. Trace with a pencil, pen, or erasable fabric marker. On light fabrics a normal pencil works just fine. On dark fabrics, I use gel pens or a light coloured pencil crayon.

You will be stitching on top of these lines, so try not to mark up the fabric too much or it will be visible on the finished magnet

And you’re now ready to start stitching!