Embroidered Shirt

How to stitch quotes on to clothing 

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The VERY first thing I embroidered years ago was a piece of canvas I made into a Black Flag patch that I sewed onto the back of my jeans. It wasn’t perfect, but I loved that it was something I made and that it was unique! I love embroidering on clothing, especially on vintage and thrifted items because you don’t have much to lose if you mess up a 2 dollar shirt. (Can you tell I’ve done that before?)

This tutorial will show you all the supplies you need and a simple embroidery stitch that looks great to stitch quotes or embroider words onto any article of clothing.

Supplies You’ll Need

• Piece of clothing to stitch on – if it’s t-shirt material or fabric that has some stretch to it, check out this post about how to embroider on stretchy fabric.
• Embroidery Hoop– preferably 4-5 inches in diameter
• Needle (I recommend chenille or embroidery needles)
• Scissors
• Embroidery Floss
• Water Soluble Marker

Getting Started

1. Find a shirt, jeans, jacket, etc. you’d like to work with! Make sure the fabric is somewhat sturdy. I recommend denim, canvas, linen, or cotton as those are easier to stitch on!

2. Secure the area you’d like to stitch in the embroidery hoop.

3. With your water-soluble marker, draw your phrase or word onto the clothing. The nice thing about this marker is it erases with water, so don’t worry if you mess up a couple of times!

4. Take your thread of choice and secure a knot in the thread. 

The stitch I will be using is a split stitch. Here are the step by steps on how to do this.  

5. Start from the back of your fabric and pull the thread through. You’re going to make a simple straight stitch. Now, when you come back through the fabric you’ll be going through the middle of this first stitch, literally splitting the stitch in two. Now make another stitch a few millimeters away from your last stitch and keep repeating this process.

6. You’re going to make a simple straight stitch.

7. Now, when you come back through the fabric you’ll be going through the middle of this first stitch, literally splitting the stitch in two.

8. Now make another stitch a few millimeters away from your last stitch and keep repeating this process.

Now you’ll need to make sure to secure the thread you just stitched.

How to Finish Embroidery Stitches

1. From the back, take your needle under your last stitch.

2. Now you have a loop with a tail. Take the tail and put it halfway through to make another loop with a tail. Do this a few times a pull tight.

3. You’ll have a knot that forms. Trim the tail

I hope this tutorial helps you and that you love what you end up making!

If you’re looking for more basic stitches to use when stitching on clothes, check out how to embroider letters by hand that shows you 4 of the best stitches to use for letters.

Keep learning: check out this post that has some general tips and product recommendations for embroidering on clothes.

Amanda

Amanda is a hand embroidery teacher and artist. With over 15 years of experience in the craft industry and embroidery, she owns and runs Crewel Ghoul, sharing accessible tutorials and patterns to help inspire fellow crafters to get creative. In addition to running this website, she teaches on Skillshare and Youtube.