How to... Transfer a Design onto Felt!

Have you ever tried??  I have picture the scene... it was the night before the first class of term, the only thing left to do was transfer this Octopus design onto a few pieces of felt for my students to start stitching the next day... and ALL of my go to methods failed me. Nightmare!

The problem is that usual methods just don't work on felt. For a start, you can't see through it, so light box methods don't work. I had made stencils of my design, but it turns out that pens don't work at all because the felt is too, well, felty... or they bleed into the felt, so by the next day the pattern is well, just one big blob! Transfer pencil? Nope! Hopeless! The iron was so hot that it scorched the (acrylic) felt and only left the faintest of marks.

So what happened? Well, many hours of trying, and I had a few half scorched, blurry Octopodes on some felt! And, a vow never to use felt for class again!

But then, well, Xmas was coming, and you know, Felt and Xmas go together hand in crafty hand, don't they?! This time, I did my research well in advance, and finally, I found out about Sticky Fabri Solvy... Printable, Stickable, Washable! Perfecto!

So how do you use it?
It's soooo easy! You print (or draw) your design on to the Solvy, remove the backing, stick it onto your felt and stitch through it. When you've finished stitching, just soak the work in cold water, let it dry, and you're done!

Pre-Shrink Your Fabric
If you're using felt with wool content, soak it in cold water to pre-shrink it first. Roll it in a towel to remove excess water and let it dry flat. 

Transferring the Design:
If you have a digital design all you need to do is use your computer printer to print onto a sheet of Solvy. You could also use a photocopier. 

1. Make sure you get the right Solvy! It's a brand name with several products in the range. You want Sticky Fabri Solvy, and you'll need to buy it online, unless you have a very good haberdashers near by (or you can buy a sheet from me if you come to my classes).
2. Put the sheet of Solvy the right way up, into the bypass/rear tray.  You want the printer to print on the rough side (the Solvy) and not onto the smooth backing sheet. The instructions were wrong in my pack, so I printed it first onto the backing sheet! 
3. Set your printer page size setting to US standard size 8 1/2" x 11" - not A4!
4. Open your document, you can use Windows Photo Viewer. Set the Print settings as follows:
   1. Full page photo
   2. Uncheck the box saying "Fit picture to Frame" (this function resizes the image, so don't do that!)
   3. In the printer settings: Select paper size US standard size 8 1/2" x 11" (not A4!)
      
   4. In the printer settings: Select rear/bypass tray
   5. In the printer settings: Select fast print or ink saver option
5. Now hit Print, and sit back and let your computer do all the hard work for you!
6. If you don't have a computer or printer, you can trace any design that you like onto the Sticky Fabri Solvy, as it is translucent. Just use a black pen.

Stitching the Design

1. Cut around the design, leaving a 5mm margin. Don't cut off any of your stitching lines!  You want to remove as much excess Solvy as possible, to save washing it out later. 
2. Remove the Sticky Fabri Solvy, carefully from the backing sheet. You'll find that it has a sticky side!  The sheet tends to curl and stick to itself, so be carefull!
3. Stick it on to your felt. Make sure you have enough excess felt so that you can hold your work comfortably as you stitch.
4. You're now ready to start stitching! 

Finishing
Once you've finished all your stitching, it's time to remove the Fabri Solvy

1. If you're working a design that is also a pattern piece, for example, if you're stitching one of my Dove Xmas Decorations, makes sure you cut out the pattern piece along the cutting line. Once you've removed the Solvy, these cutting lines will be gone forever!
2. Soak the piece in cold water for about half an hour. Swish them about in the cold water and then drain.
   
3. You'll see that the Solvy has dissolved into a white glue like residue. You need to remove this, so rinse and swish the piece until all the Solvy is gone. 
4.  Roll the piece in a towel (or flannel) to remove excess water, re-shape if necessary, and let it dry flat, somewhere warm, but not on top of a radiator or heat source - you don't want it to shrink!
   

Ta da!  Such a simple way to transfer designs to felt. It also works for other thick and napped fabrics, such as velvet, and also dark fabrics - or dark, and napped fabrics, like this Snowflake design worked on darkest purple fabric. Lush!

​The only caveat is that if your fabric has loose dye, perhaps it's very dark, or it's hand-dyed fabric, the loose dye will stain your stitching when you wash the Solvy away... Aargh!