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Cutting out your wool and woolfelt patterns!
One rule to always remember - if you draw around the out side of a pattern piece always cut
your fabric on the inside of the line drawn. This will help you keep your pattern piece true to size, reverse this if
you are drawing on your fabric on the inside of a pattern piece.
Some times the paper that we pattern designers use is not stiff enough to hold up to drawing
around a pattern numerous times so I suggest cutting your pattern from card stock.
Always cut out everything and lay it out before you begin to sew (unless the pattern states
otherwise). If something does not seem to fit quiet right feel free to trim it a little. When I have a small intricate
or just hard area to trace around I will cut the pattern piece out, lay it on the fabric and use a fat piece of sidewalk
chalk. Just pull the chalk from the pattern piece out over the fabric and it should leave a nice crisp mark-remember
to cut on the inside of the line! The white charcoal pencil also comes in handy especially when working on a dark fabric.
The glue stick comes in handy when laying out letters!
Cutting out your main piece is important, that is why I like using a rotory cutter and board.
If your piece is larger than your board, measure and mark well, use your straight edge to draw your lines.
When doing a pattern that might have embroidery on the woolfelt
the only way I have come up with to transfer that pattern is just old fashioned tracing paper and a tracing wheel. I
have tried graphite paper and a stylus but I can't seem to get it to stand out good enough to see.
Embroidery!
I think the most important things with embroidery are transferring
the pattern and paying attention to the directions, should you use one strand or two or if you should use perle cotton.
Once you find an embroidery pattern you like you can make so many
different things, add trim to pillow cases, use it on clothing, pillows, hand towels, frame it! Make wall hangings and
quilts!
Tools for embroidery!
hoop (optional)
good embroidery needles
lightbox (you could use a bright window)
micron pens (multiple colors)
Learning how to do the different stitches just takes practice.
There are many guides available, I like the small pocket versions that most quilt shops carry, the directions are easy to
understand and the drawings clear and easy!
Sometimes as designers we have to put our patterns on two pieces
of paper. When we have those copied sometimes the lines don't come to the edge of the paper(I have been told
it has something to do with the copyright laws?), I suggest you line up your papers and tape them together first then connect
your lines. For embroidery I pin the pattern to the back of the fabric and lay on a light box and trace or hold
it up to a window!
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