Energy Efficient Light Bulb Pillow - Transferring the Pattern

For this project, I made my own embroidery pattern by drawing a CFL lightbulb onto a piece of paper.  I'm going to transfer the pattern to my cloth using embroidery tracing paper.  Mine is made by DMC and comes in 8 1/2" x 11" sheets that are yellow or blue.  I'm going to use the yellow to make a visible line on my dark blue cloth.

I don't draw well freehand, so traced directly from my pattern.  Since my pattern is only 5" by 2", I started by conserving tracing paper!  I cut out 1/4 of the tracing paper sheet, which just fit my pattern.

Tracing Paper

Then, I taped the pattern to the back, non-colored side of the tracing paper.  The pattern should not be reversed.  So, when you're looking at it from above, it should look just like it will when it is on the cloth.

Next, I spread my cloth out on a hard, smooth surface and taped the tracing paper, yellow side down, on to the right side of my cloth.  With my particular cloth, there really is no right side and wrong side, but I checked to be sure...didn't want to put the pattern on the wrong side of the cloth!

I used clear tape to attach the paper, which work well for my small pattern.  Something larger might require more secure taping - masking tape might be better.  I didn't want to pin it because I was afraid of puckering.

Lastly, I traced over my pattern with a pen that I could really bear down on (and still went over every line 2 or 3 times).  I peeked underneath after a few lines to be sure that the marks were going through.
And, ta da!  A perfect little CFL on my dark blue cloth:

Finished Tracing on Embroidery Cloth

That's the edited version of this learning experience.  I learned that the pattern shouldn't be reversed by making that mistake and getting a backwards CFL!  Oops!  Luckily, since my cloth is the same on both sides, I just flipped it over and tried again.

When I was done, I saved my tracing paper...there's still plenty of yellow on it for tiny projects.

Next time:  Another new stitch!