How to Embroider Hat Backs

Personalize your hat with an embroidered design.

Why settle for a generic design on your baseball hat when you can create your own? Embroidery machines are making it easy for people to stitch designs onto their hats. You can get creative and draw your own design or choose from one of hundreds of designs loaded into the software. When you do it yourself, you also have the option of placing the design on the back of the hat rather than on the front where designs on mass-produced hats typically are placed.

Things You'll Need

• Embroidery machine
• Sewing machine
• Embroidery software
• Soft baseball hat
• Heavy cut-away stabilizer
• Embroidery thread
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Start up your embroidery software. Design your image, type your logo or choose from one of the stock designs. Import the design into your embroidery machine.

2. Position your cut-away stabilizer into a hoop. Draw guidelines directly onto the stabilizer with a marker so you can easily get the hat on the hoop straight.

3. Pull the hat's facing out of the way and position your hat in the center of the hoop, according to the guidelines, so the back is facing out. Make sure the design on your computer screen is lined up in the same direction that you have placed your hat. Pin the hat to the stabilizer.

4. Sew your hat to the stabilizer using a long, straight stitch. To get the hoop under the shank more easily, remove the presser foot.

5. Put your sewing machine's presser foot back on. Stitch a rectangle around the area that you plan to embroider. Make the rectangle much larger than the area you are embroidering. Doing this will hold the hat securely in the hoop while you embroider without needing to be concerned about your hat getting caught under the needle.

6. Set your embroidery software to stitch your design.

7. Trim your stabilizer away from the design's edge. Remove any basting stitches.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the baste-in-the-hoop feature on your embroidery machine to verify that your design is stitching straight.

References

• Craft Stylish: How To Embroider On A Baseball Hat When You Don't Have A Cap Hoop!

Resources

• "The Embroidery Stitch Bible"; Betty Barnden; 2003