Create bold fashions—one stitch at a time! Learn how to use coordinated sets of embroidery designs to embellish jackets, hoodies, and more.
Supplies & Materials:
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Supplies:
- Lightweight cutaway stabilizer
- Seam ripper
- Fabric marking tool
- Pins or quilter's clips
- Temporary spray adhesive
- Masking or painter's tape
- Scissors
- Iron
- Pressing cloth
- Sewing needle and thread for hand sewing
The designs used in this tutorial include:
This tutorial will show you how to use printed templates to position and embroider apparel stitch kit designs on a pre-existing garment.
A template, or printout, of a design is an excellent tool to help with placement. Print a template of the design using an embroidery software.
We recommend Wilcom's Hatch software which comes in different levels depending on what you'd like to use the software for. Hatch Organizer works well to view your designs, print dielines and templates, change design colors, and create basic design layouts. (This is an affiliate link. We may earn commission on purchases made through this link.
Before starting, it’s best to get an idea of where you would like the designs to be placed. To do this, begin by laying the printed template designs out.
If you’d like to try the garments on before committing, be sure to securely tape or pin the templates to your garment so they don’t fall off or shift.
After you’ve determined your placement, use a temporary marking tool and a quilters ruler or straight edge to lightly mark the horizontal and vertical axis or placement lines for the design.
In some cases, it may be best to remove things such as sleeves or hoods entirely before embroidering. Carefully use a seam ripper along the seam and then use something like painters tape to label the side of the garments as well as the front and back for reattaching later.
Use a spray adhesive to attach the piece of your garment to your stabilizer of choice. In this example we’re using soft and sheer stabilizer with our hoodie sleeve. After attaching to stabilizer, use a quilters ruler to extend the axis lines fully.
Hoop the garment piece and stabilizer in the hoop closest to the size of your embroidery design. Make sure everything is hooped tightly and there are no wrinkles or puckers in the fabric.
Center the design on your machine. Attach the hoop onto the machine and load the embroidery file. Use a 75/11 sharp sewing needle. This type of needle has a finer point and will make smaller perforations in the stabilizer and fabric.
Remove the design from the hoop and follow the package directions to remove your placement markings for the design, but do not remove the tape or markings made to help realign the garment pieces. Use your pressing cloth and iron to press the design.
Trim away the extra stabilizer from the back of your design.
Use pins or quilters clips to match the right sides of the garment piece back together.
Use your sewing machine or overlock machine to sew the garment pieces back together following the existing seam allowance. If you do not have an overlock machine, you can use either a zig zag stitch or an overcast stitch to help limit fraying and to mimic an overlock stitch.
Follow the same steps to pin and reattach the removed piece back onto the main garment. Remove your markings that helped with reassembly as well.
Some parts of your garment might have areas, such as on the shoulder or near a zipper, that are too hard to hoop. In these cases, you can “float” the design.
Floating the fabric is when the stabilizer is hooped firmly by itself. The garment is then hand sewn with a basting stitch onto the stabilizer.
Follow the same steps to figure out your placement and mark your axis lines.
First, hoop the cutaway stabilizer by itself. Make sure it is hooped tight.
Use temporary spray adhesive to place your garment on the hooped stabilizer. Be sure the axis lines line up with the markings on your hoop.
Use a hand sewing needle and baste around all four edges of the hoop. Make sure to smooth the fabric as you go to prevent any wrinkles from forming.
Attach the hoop onto the machine and load the embroidery file. Follow the color change sheet and embroider the design.
When the design has finished sewing remove the hoop from the machine. Before you unhoop the design, use a seam ripper to remove the basting stitches.
Once all the basting stitches have been removed, trim away the excess cutaway stabilizer.
Remove the design from the hoop and follow the package directions to remove your placement markings for the design, do not remove the tape or markings made to help realign the garment piece. Use your pressing cloth and iron to press the design.
Floating is a great option for things like pouch style pockets that can be hard to fully remove, such as with zip up hoodies that have the pouch sewn into bottom and zipper seams.
Fashion stitch kits are a great way to add a personal touch to a favorite garment, or to embroider for a gift!
