Transform Your Clothes with Hand Embroidery – Beginner’s Guide

Are you ready to learn how to embroider on your clothes? It’s actually pretty simple, and it’s a great way to customize your wardrobe and give an old shirt or a pair of pants a new life. In this post, I’ll go over some tips and tricks so you can stitch beautiful designs onto some of your favorite garments.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you purchase a product through it. I only recommend products I would use/love!

How To Embroider On Your Clothes

Embroidering on clothes is a lot like any embroidery project, but there are a few additional considerations to keep in mind to ensure your embroidery turns out great and lasts a long time.

Unlike embroidering on a cut piece of fabric, you’ll be working on an assembled garment that may have seams, layers, pockets, and more.

First I’ll share with you some of my favorite fabrics to use, then I’ll go over how to choose an area to stitch and some helpful products and methods to help make the process easier.

Types of Fabric To Use

The easiest fabrics to embroider on are light to medium weight materials made of natural fibers that don’t contain elastic.

Natural fibers are more structured and durable, making them much easier to stitch on which will make the process much more enjoyable!

Some of my favorites fabrics are:

• 100% cotton or cotton canvas
• linen
• denim

100% cotton t-shirts, denim jackets, denim jeans, and linen button-ups are great items of clothing to embroider.

Heads up! A lot of cheaper quality clothing is made of lightweight synthetic fabrics which can lose their structure over time, so I generally recommend avoiding those. Check the tag to see what fibers make up the clothing before you stitch.

What If I Really Want To Stitch On Something Stretchy Or Synthetic?

I know I just mentioned that I don’t recommend stitching on synthetic fabrics, but this is of course a suggestion and not a rule. While it is more challenging, it’s totally possible to stitch on clothing made of more challenging materials.

• If you’ve decided to stitch on stretchy fabric, you’ll want to avoid overstretching the fabric.
• You may also want to consider using an adhesive or iron on stabilizer on the back of the fabric to help it maintain it’s structure.

What About Knits And Accessories?

This tutorial focuses on embroidery for basic garments, but check out these tutorials to learn how to embroider on knitting and even stitch on socks!

Choosing Embroidery Floss

It’s important to choose an embroidery floss that is made of high quality fibers and is colorfast, meaning the colors won’t bleed. This way, the colors will stay vibrant and the embroidery will be able withstand regular washing.

I like to use cotton DMC floss but there are many other great brands to use.

• While it is possible to stitch with synthetic fibers, a lot of the metallic threads are somewhat slippery and harder to secure. For clothing, stick with natural fibers like cotton or wool.
• If you’re not sure how colorfast the thread is, you can always test it in a discreet area first before using it.

Additional Supplies You’ll Need

• An embroidery hoop – keeps the fabric tight while you’re stitching
• Embroidery needle
• Scissors
• A way to transfer your design – tracing paper, a water soluble marker, or stick and stitch are good options

Product Picks

Available on Walmart

Available at Michael’s

Preparing Your Clothes

If the clothing is brand new and never washed before, I recommend washing it first. This will rinse away any excess dye and break the fabric in, allowing it to soften.

Once you’ve laundered the article of clothing, make sure to iron out any wrinkles before you transfer the design.

Choosing An Area To Stitch

The easiest places to stitch on clothes are in areas that you can easily access the front and back of the fabric or in an area you can place a small embroidery hoop.

The front of a button-up shirt, along the neckline of a blouse, or above a pocket of a shirt are easy places to embroider.

Places you may consider avoiding:

• thick layers of fabric
• seam lines
• pockets – unless you don’t mind stitching through them or removing them first
• sleeves and pant legs – lots of fabric to arrange, and the tight space makes it tricky to stitch
• areas that receive a lot of wear and tear

Patterns and Designs To Use

You can use practically any patterns or designs you want on clothing. Just make sure to measure the area you want to embroider to ensure the design will fit.

There are many mini embroidery designs to choose from here on the blog as well as designs specifically made for clothes.

Clothing Patterns

Stick N Stitch Packs

Stick and stitch packs are another convenient option for embroidering on clothes. The designs are printed and cut out, ready for you to use.

Transferring The Design

If you plan on freehand drawing a design onto your clothes, a water soluble marker will do.

Using Stick and Stitch

It can be near impossible to trace through clothing. If there is a pattern you’d like to transfer, I highly recommend using Stick N Washaway Stabilizer. The sheets come in a standard printer paper size, so you can easily print off your pattern and stick it directly onto the fabric!

Simply download the pattern you’d like to use, place the stabilizer face-down in the printer, and print it out.

If you’ve never used stick and stitch before, check out my tips for using it before you get started.

Important Tip: Before you get started, test out a piece of the printed stabilizer on the clothing. Stick it somewhere discreet, preferably on the inside of the clothing, then soak and rinse it off to make sure that the ink on the stabilizer doesn’t bleed and stain the fabric.

Tracing Paper Method

Another budget friendly option is to use tracing paper.

1. Trace the design onto the paper.
2. Cut around the design leaving a margin of about 1 inch.
3. Secure it on top of the clothing with a loose basting stitch.
4. Tear it away when you’re finished.

1. Print the pattern onto the stabilizer sheet. Cut out the design, leaving about 1/2″ around it. Peel off the backing of the stabilizer and place it on the area you want to embroider.
2. Place your embroidery hoop around the design and pull the fabric tight.
3. Depending on the clothing, the stabilizer may move when you first start stitching. It helps to do a basting stitch (a loose running stitch you can take out after) to keep the stabilizer extra secure.
4. Now, you’re ready to stitch!

Stitching The Design

Most surface embroidery stitches work well for clothing.

Here are some of my favorites to use:

• satin stitch and the long and short stitch for filling in areas
• split stitch, stem stitch, back stitch, or chain stitch for outlining shapes and letters
• french knots and lazy daisies to add decorative elements

The only kinds of stitches I would avoid are raised stitches. (for example, the raised stem stitch, raised buttonhole stitch, woven picot, etc.) The stitches will more easily get snagged or become loose with wash and wear.

To end stitches, I like to use finishing knots. Make sure they are extra tight to make sure none of your stitches fall out while you’re wearing your clothes.

Finishing Up

When you’re done stitching, soak the clothing in warm water for a few minutes, then under running water to remove any excess stabilizer.

Hang up the clothing and allow it to completely dry.

I don’t usually back my embroideries with anything. However, if you find that the embroidery is itchy against your skin, you can try sealing off the stitches with an iron-on backing such as Tender Touch

Caring For Your Embroidered Clothing

After you’ve embroidered onto the clothes, the best way to clean them is by hand washing them or using the delicate/hand wash setting on your washing machine. Avoid using the dryer, hang drying is best.

As with anything that contains color, you should avoid bleach. And for more helpful tips, this post will share everything you need to know about washing and caring for embroidered clothes.

TLDR – Helpful Tips

• Make sure you pre-wash the clothing you are going to stitch on just in case it shrinks!
• Use thread that is colorfast so that it won’t fade or bleed when the clothes are washed.
• Be mindful of how long you are making your stitches. Stitches such as the satin stitch can become loose once you take the embroidery out of the hoop. If you are covering a large area with long satin stitches, opt for another stitch, such as the long and short stitch to fill it in.
• Always test out whatever marker or stabilizer you are using on a discreet area first! You always want to make sure whatever materials you are using won’t ruin or stain your clothes.
• Use an embroidery hoop – the tension of an embroidery hoop on the fabric will make it much easier to keep your stitches looking neat and even and prevent the fabric from puckering.
• Make sure to knot your stitches when you end them to ensure your embroidery doesn’t fall out.
• Stitching through thick material? Here’s how to help prevent sore fingers from embroidering.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial! Check out this tutorial on how to stitch words onto clothing and this tutorial for cross stitching on clothes to keep learning.

Frequently Asked Questions

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.