How to Make a Scout Patch

Scouts enjoy helping their community and participating in activities with their peers. Every scout has the opportunity to serve others and earn merit badges for their service and experience. Scouts can make patches and give them away as gifts or sport them on their own clothes. They can also make patches and sell them to benefit the troop, just as they do with when selling cookies and other crafts. Patches are simple to make with a printer, special paper and a few sewing notions.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Inkjet transfer paper
• Inkjet printer
• Scissors
• Embroidery floss
• Needle
• Thimble
• Steam iron
• Fabric adhesive, such as Fun Patch Attach

1. Design the artwork and crop the image. You can use a photo or draw your own design with colored markers or paint. Scan the image, resize to 3 inches, and save this file on your computer.

2. Test your inkjet printer with the transfer paper and change your printer settings. Transfer paper has paper backing, and is suitable for most inkjet printers. Change your printer settings from plain paper to t-shirt transfer under "Printing Preferences."

3. Print your design and cut to size. Place the transfer paper into the paper tray of your printer, with the fabric side facing the printing side on the printer. Refer to your printer manual to find out if you need to lay the fabric side up or the fabric side down. Let dry for 20 minutes and peel off the paper backing.

4. Satin stitch the edges of the patch for a polished look. Thread a needle with embroidery floss and insert the needle 1/4 inch from the edge of the patch, from the wrong side of the fabric, and up through the patch. Bring the needle over the edge and back up from the wrong side of the patch again. Repeat until you have finished the whole border of the patch, keeping stitches close and not overlapping. To avoid injuries, use a thimble for sewing the patch border.

5. Place the patch facing up on the ironing board and lay a piece of white cloth on top of the patch. Use high steam settings, pressing five times for three seconds. This sets the color on the patch so you can wash it without the ink bleeding onto other clothes in the washer.

6. Attach your patch to clothing. Use an adhesive like Fun Patch Attach on the wrong side of the patch. If you want to move the patch to a different piece of clothing in the future, sew the patch on your clothes instead of using permanent adhesive. Be sure to get permission from your scout leader or scout council before attaching any badge or patch to your uniform. See Resources for more information.

Tips & Warnings

• All trademarked materials, including logos, badges, mottoes and patches, belong to official scouting organizations. You must get permission before using, copying, selling or marketing any material. Contact the Girl Scouts of America at [e-mail] for more information, or contact the Boy Scouts of America at [e-mail] for permission.
• Always use a surge protector for plugging in your computer, printer and other hardware.

Resources

• Inkjet Transfer Paper
• Embroidery Floss
• Fun Patch Attach
• Where to Place Insignia on a Uniform