How to...

  I started on the next companion piece to the needle case and I thought you might like to see how I printed the linen in the printer.  When I started working out of these Australian books I realized they called for hanky linen.  Handkerchief linen is lighter weight linen than what you would pick up at the fabric store.  To me it resembles a voile.  Almost translucent.  Linen from the fabric store is more opaque.  I have found either one works.  More often than not I normally use a found vintage linen napkin and back it with pellon before I stitch on it. 

Note: this technique will only work for 8 1/2 x 11 inch embroidery projects.  

With my image in hand I run it through the scanner.

Because there is more than one image on the page I select out the embroidery image I want to scan only. Scan again.  This will remove the other images on the page.  I always save my scans as JPG files so that I can work with them in any photo program that I have.  I also save them to the desktop of my notebook so that I don't have to go looking for them.  (Believe me I have wasted time doing that!)

Drop and drag your scan into your photo program of choice.  Mine is photoshop.  I am running my embroidery pattern landscape as it will fit better on the fabric.  Notice the pink-ish line...we have to remove that or it will print pink on my white linen.

Remove any blemishes that might have been scanned in with the eraser tool.  Confirm the size of the embroidery with the book.  I always remeasure to make sure it prints out the right size.  

This is white linen that I cut at 8 x 10 1/2 inches in order to be able to tape the fabric to the card stock sufficiently.

Card stock is my favorite because it adds the stability.  

 Position the fabric over the paper and add tape to the edges.  Careful not to fold over and tape the back.  This can cause paper jams.  I used washi tape just to show you where I tape.  I recommend the tape below as it will help ease the paper through the printer.

Here is the important part.....turn the preset of the printer to fast draft....This will give you a grey print.   It uses very little ink.

Important to always do a test run.  Mark the back of the paper as you will know how to put the paper in.  

Cross your fingers and print.

Helpful Hints

Beautiful.  Crisp lines.  Understand that not all printers are the same.  Make sure your printer is not super dirty it could smear on your fabric.  Run a test piece of fabric through.  Never use the same piece of paper twice. Once it goes through it loses its rigidity.  

For larger projects I bought the light box.  There is a huge difference.  

My tool for tracing is the HB drawing pencil.  It has soft lead that won't pull on the fabric.  You can find these in the artist section of the craft store.  These work best if they are sharp.

You can see the lines are not near as crisp but I was very impressed with the way the light made the image clear to see.  Certainly worth the 50% I paid at Jo Ann's. These are the tools of my trade...