I found this great set of McCall’s embroidery transfers during one of my thrifting hauls last month. Dated 1946, this animal set is heat activated. Realizing I could get only one transfer for each design due to the age, I started to think of ways to preserve the images so I could use them again in the future by tracing them with tracing paper or a light box. Here’s what I did, but I’ll defer to any embroidery diehards out there for there own tips, too!
Take your used transfer and place it transfer side down on a copy machine. Use a scrap piece of plain white paper and place on top. I did this because sometimes copy machines have a hard time recognizing a small piece of paper on the glass – my kitten transfer was fairly small, so this was important. Make sure the transfer is flat on the glass as you close the top. Copy.
You should be set! This ink was blue, so I used a color copy to preserve it in its original form. I can use this again and again and not worry about losing the transfer.
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