Recently a friend sent me to
www.appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com. I read about a tip for using Crayola washable markers for marking fabric with quilting lines. I thought i f you could use these markers for quilting lines, why couldn't they be used to mark an embroidery design? I couldn't wait to try it. I'm quite a skeptic, but I so hoped it worked. I love the blue marker that is made to wash out of fabric, but they have gotten pretty expensive and you can't see it on a blue or dark fabric. Actually I paid the same amount for an entire package as I have for one blue marker. And the chalk markers rub off after a short time.
Before I spent several days stitching, I marked a piece of the fabric that I was planning on using. I highly recommend doing this any time a different fabric is used. I found that I needed a little bit of liquid soap and a bit of a soak, but ALL of the ink rinsed out!
So this is what my project looked like. First I drew a design on paper and then using a lightbox, I tansferred it to the hand dyed fabric using the green washable marker.
I stitched using a variety of stitches including the backstitch, lazy daisy and french knots. I like to embroider with some thin batting behind the design. When I do this, the fabric doesn't pucker and an embroidery hoop isn't necessary.
Thanks for the great tip. I love blogs.
