Friday, December 2, 2022

Lightbox for Easier Embroidery Project Prep!

A different kind of post today - I'm trying out my new lightbox which I bought to help with my embroidery projects! It's a basic style, the size of a regular sheet of paper, with 3 brightness levels and a USB charger. It should be enough for me though. 

I generally trace my patterns by taping the pattern and fabric to a window (ie: my summer Peace for Ukraine project). But in winter it's harder, since my porch is too cold to trace in and my inside windows are harder to use; it's not as bright out and many of my windows have panes. So I splurged on this little lightbox - it was under $30 and should make my life easier.

I got out the next pattern I am planning on using - a floral Tryzub design, also by @EmbroideryArtbyNat. This is a pattern from her Patreon, and I'm happy to support her this way as she is on her refugee journey from Ukraine to Canada. You can too, if you like! 

Anyhow, on to the project. I printed out the Tryzub in various sizes, as I want to use it for a couple of different items. The first one is as an embroidered motif on a blouse, so I made it quite small. And I'm thinking of making a pillow from this design, so I have also printed one as a full page image. Both sizes are easily traceable on this lightbox. 

It's easy to do. The lightbox is designed for tracing so you don't have to worry about damaging it from the pressure of a pen, although a lighter hand is always good. You can change to light levels depending on how thick/dark your fabric is. I imagine there is a limit to this, however, and with very dark or heavy fabrics (such as a denim) you might need to resort to other methods of transferring your pattern to the top of the fabric.

In any case, I used a linen and a Frixion pen.  As I was getting ready I remembered the thrifted linen napkins I picked up recently, just a pair. The smallest image fits beautifully in the corner! It worked out well; I was able to easily see the image, and trace it without much struggle. You will want to secure your image and fabric with some masking or washi tape so that they don't move around while you are tracing. I prefer these kinds of low tack tape so you don't get any residue on your fabric or your device.

 

And there it is, a clear image ready to be stitched, with much less effort than tracing vertically on a window! My arms thank me for this purchase :) I hope to be able to show you one of these projects all stitched up before too long. 



2 comments:

  1. I recently got a slightly larger lightbox, not quite the size of 2 sheets. I use it to slap together pdf patterns. Life changing 😁!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, great idea to use it for pdf patterns!

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