How to Make an Embroidered Patch

If you want to create an embroidered patch in the manner of Girl Scout patches and don’t have a $3,000 embroidery machine, here’s how to do it by hand. As long as you can pull a needle in and out, you can do this!

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper and marker for creating your design
• Cotton or muslin, white (1/2 a yard is more than sufficient)
• Embroidery hoop, 6 to 10 inches
• Embroidery needles (or sharps, longs, or betweens)
• Small scissors for snipping thread
• Large scissors for trimming fabric
• A #2 pencil or a transfer pencil & ballpoint pen
• Fusible webbing, such as Steam-A-Seam 2
• Embroidery floss in desired colors (I prefer DMC)

1. First, transfer your design to the white fabric. There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest is to make a line drawing (freehand or traced), making sure the lines are very bold, tape the drawing to a window, lay your fabric over it, and trace the design using your #2 pencil. If you prefer to use a transfer pencil, make a line drawing and use the transfer pencil to go over the lines on the back of the drawing, Turn the drawing over, lay it on the fabric, and use a ballpoint pen to trace the drawing lines; they will be transferred to the fabric.

2. Cut your fabric as necessary so that you have at least 12 by 12 inches. Place the fabric in the embroidery hoop—most hoops work on tension and will tighten the fabric so that it is taut. You want this as tight as possible when doing embroidery.

3. Select the first color of floss you are going to use. Floss generally comes six strands together (unlike plain sewing thread, which has only one strand). It is most common to use two strands together for embroidery. Cut about 20 inches or so of floss and separate one strand. Pull the strand through the needle so that 10 inches are on either side of the needle’s eye. Knot the strands together.

4. Place your needle under the hooped fabric, and push it up through the fabric on the outside line of the drawing. Establish one side as A and the other as B--you will be going from A to B.

5. Pull the needle through until the knot stops; push the needle down through the opposite line of the drawing. (In this case, across the leaf). Repeat until the leaf is filled. When the floss becomes too short, knot it and cut a new strand. This is satin stitch, and can be used to fill most areas of an embroidered design.

6. Repeat steps 3—5 until the design is complete. Note that if you have selected a large design, you may need to move and rehoop the fabric in order to successfully reach all areas.

7. Remove your design from the hoop. You may gently press it from the wrong side, with plenty of steam, to remove any hoop marks or wrinkles.

8. Apply fusible webbing to the reverse of the patch, following the manufacturer’s directions. The fusible webbing should be sticky on both sides. Cut the patch to its finished size, trimming carefully around the edges.

9. Remove any coating or paper per the manufacturer’s instructions, and lay the patch down on the garment you wish to apply it to; iron the patch on. You may also choose to further secure the patch to the garment with small stitches around the very edge of the patch—recommended if the garment will get a lot of everyday wear.

Tips & Warnings

• Working with metallic threads is more challenging than working with regular floss. Cut metallic threads shorter—they have a greater tendency to knot and kink.
• Don’t cut your floss too long—the longer it is, the more likely it is to knot and snarl.
• You can slant your embroidery stitches to achieve subtle effects.
• Be sure to either create your own designs or use copyright-free or permission-free designs. The Dover clip art series is an inexpensive source of such motifs. Using copyrighted material may result in legal action against you.