Bohin, the French company that produces these excellent needles (and other needlework tools) offers a very curious product for design transfer, called “Transfer Veil.”
Transfer Veil, in my mind, falls in the same category as “transfer mesh” because it works the same exact way. But there’s a huge difference between Bohin’s Transfer Veil and the “transfer mesh” by Clover that we looked at the other day.
The biggest difference is that you can actually transfer detailed designs with transfer veil – with some caveats.
I played around with the curious stuff for a bit and tried different approaches with it, because, although I like the concept, I wasn’t too keen on part of the product (specifically, the transfer pen used with the veil).
I’m just going to write about my adventures in a very loose way, so that you can see what I tried and why, and then you can decide if Bohin’s Transfer Veil is a product that you’d like to use for design transfer.
Above, you can see the supplies that I started working with when I first played with Bohin’s Transfer Veil – a couple small cuts from the transfer veil fabric (we’ll talk about that below), the pen that’s included in the package of transfer veil, a micron art pen (to test an idea), an embroidery design that I printed on a piece of regular printer paper (you can find this particular design for free, here), and some test fabric – a high count, smooth-hand natural colored linen.
Let’s talk first about Bohin’s Transfer Veil.
When you purchase a package of Bohin’s Transfer Veil, it comes with three “veils” – three pieces of the actual transfer medium.
The veil is a non-woven, very fine, durable, semi-transparent white “fabric” that looks a lot like a very, very fine interfacing, but isn’t.
I have no idea what the fabric is. It doesn’t say what the fabric content is, and I don’t know if it’s a fabric that’s used for other applications outside the needlework world, or if it’s a specific fabric concocted by Bohin, specifically for this use. It’s interesting stuff.
I can tell you what it isn’t:
It is not organza. It is not interfacing. It is not net of any kind.
This is what it looks like. It has a little stiffness to it, but it isn’t stiff-stiff. When it’s wet – which I’ll show you below – it goes completely transparent and limp, and it feels very silky.
There it is again – this time, with a design traced on it with the supplied transfer pen.
And right there, I found a little hang-up with the product. It’s not the product itself, though. It’s the transfer pen.
Let me explain.
With this approach, according to the directions, you’re to trace the embroidery design onto the veil using the supplied water-soluble transfer pen. Then, you lay the veil on top of your fabric and trace over the design again, using the same pen. The ink from the water-soluble pen will flow through the transfer veil onto your fabric.
Because you’re using a water-soluble pen, when you’re finished with the design, you can rinse the transfer veil, let it dry, and use it again.
It’s a great idea, but I wasn’t too pleased with the original tracing with the water-soluble pen. It is hard to see and the line is very thick. The supplied pen does not draw a fine line.
Before I went any further, I got it into my head that maybe the design could be drawn onto the veil with a different pen. I decided to try a micron pen, even though they are permanent. I figured it would be worth the little square I cut from the corner of the transfer veil, to see if a permanent pen would work. It would be nice to be able to re-use a very visible transfer, after all, especially when transferring repeat designs.
Well, that’s what was in my head, anyway.
So I traced the design onto the veil with the micron pen. Then I laid the veil on my fabric and used the water soluble pen to trace over the micron pen.
The ink from the water-soluble pen forced some of the black micron ink onto the fabric.
I didn’t like that result – and I also didn’t like the result of the water-soluble transfer pen. The line is very thick, and if you have a very detailed design, it wouldn’t work so great.
I had it in my head, though, that maybe I could actually trace over the design using the micron pen, and transfer a micron pen line to the fabric.
I tried with the micron pen. I traced over one line on the design.
As I traced, I felt like I had to trace it pretty heavily, sketching back and forth over the line to get the ink to flow through the veil. The micron pen has a completely different type of ink and a different type of pen tip compared to the water-soluble pen.
It resulted in a fine line through the transfer veil – which isn’t unacceptable – so I decided to trace some more.
Now, about Micron pens used this way: I don’t mind using a micron pen for certain design transfer uses. It’s not a “universal” approach. It doesn’t work for every stitching situation. But for some situations, it works well, as long as you can cover the line completely with embroidery.
In any case, I traced a little more, and you can see the result next to the water-soluble pen result in the image above. It didn’t make a terrible line, but it’s not that great, either. Still – it could work in some cases.
Would I use a micron pen and the veil for detailed designs? No, probably not.
Then I decided to switch pens again.
This time, I would try the DMC water soluble fine tipped transfer pen that I reviewed here.
The top part of the design in the photo above is traced through the micron ink (on the veil), using the DMC water-soluble pen. It still sends some of the micron ink through the veil onto the fabric, but overall, the transfer line is quite nice.
I tried again, using a fresh piece of veil onto which I traced the design, using the DMC water-soluble pen on one part of the design (the dark blue), and the included Bohin water-soluble pen on the other part of the design (the light blue).
I traced through the veil onto the fabric using the same pens, and you can see the results above.
In some places, while tracing (especially with the DMC pen), I wasn’t sure if the ink was flowing through the veil enough, so I found myself hesitating on the veil, or going back over areas. You can see a few darker lines in the dark blue part of the transfer, and a few areas where my pen hesitated enough to form darker spots on the transfer.
But overall, I find the dark blue, finer-tipped transfer acceptable. The line is clear and easy to see on the transfer and it’s clear and easy to see on the fabric.
Now let’s head to the sink with the used transfer veil. This is the piece that has the design transferred with both the DMC and the Bohin water-soluble pens.
When you run the transfer veil under the water, it goes completely transparent, limp, and silky-feeling. But it doesn’t feel like it is going to fall apart or dissolve. It stays intact just fine.
This is taking it out from under the running water, while it’s still completely wet. There’s no sign of any design on it.
I laid the wet piece on a towel for a few minutes and went back to it. Here is the dry transfer veil, ready to use again.
The Upshot
It works as promised, and I think it works pretty well.
It definitely works best on light fabric. You can get away with slightly darker fabrics if you switch to the DMC darker blue transfer pen. In general, water-soluble transfer pens don’t work great on dark fabrics, so if you’re wanting to transfer onto something dark, this likely won’t work for you.
(Someone really should invent a white water-soluble transfer pen.)
The only thing I’d change for my own use is the pen. I’d use a fine-tipped water soluble pen for this approach, but only for situations where I don’t mind using a water-soluble pen. (I only use water-soluble pens for some applications, not for all embroidery transfer situations).
There are, incidentally, other fine-tipped water-soluble pens out there, besides the DMC one. In fact, I think Bohin makes a fine-tipped one, but that’s not what’s included in with the Transfer Veil.
Is this a new favorite way to transfer embroidery designs? For me, probably not. But it works, and I can see how it could come in handy. It’s a good option to know about!
Where to Find It
Normally, I’d give you direct links to places where you can find the product I’m talking about.
In this case, I’m going to suggest that you do a Google search for “Bohin Transfer Veil.” The majority of sources that will come up are online quilting stores. The prices seem to vary greatly. You can find the 3-veil set (each veil is 12″ x 20″) for around $14 – $15, but I have also seen it priced much higher – as high as $29! So shop around, if you plan to try it out.
Believe It or Not, There’s More
I’m not finished playing with transfer methods. I want to show you a few ideas I tried out after playing with the transfer veil. They worked “ok” – probably not great, but “ok,” and I can see how knowing about them might be useful for you. So I’ll share those explorations down the road a bit.
Have a terrific weekend!
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