Best way to Make an Embroidered Fabric Patch

When embroidery meets your garment, a beauty is born. What if you could place your embroidery wherever you want – even on already stitched (sewn or readymade) clothing. No more ripping open the seams or wishing you had thought to embroider before the dress was sewn or other regrets

Yes, this is possible. With embroidered Fabric Patches.

DIY embroiderd clothing patches

You embroider your favorite design the way you want it; And then attach this one of a kind embroidered fabric patch anywhere you want without taking apart anything – on the upper arm area, on pockets, on pant hems, Tshirt elbows, or purse and bags. You can show off your embroidery skills anywhere everywhere. 

One botheration with embroidered fabric patches made on woven fabric is that they fray at the cut edges, unlike machine embroidered fabric patches. With the method outlined here, that is somewhat dismissed.

Make an hand embroidered patch.

What do you need to make the embroidered clothing patches

  • White color fabric piece
  • Embroidery design
  • Black acrylic paint
  • Brush
  • Hand embroidery needle
  • Black embroidery thread for outline
  • Embroidery thread in Other appropriate colours.
  • Scissors
  • Fusible interfacing ( 2 types of thickness preferred)
  • Double-sided adhesive sheet(paper backed fusible web ) This is optional; You can skip this if you would rather stitch the patch to the garment
  • Iron

Step 1 Get your design.

Copy from an embroidery design book or draw free hand . Check out this post for some places you can find inspiration from for embroidery designs

Small designs with broad outlines, without too many details, are best for clothing patches. Checkout glass painting designs which are best suited for making embroidered clothing patches.

Each of the inside portions should have atleast 1/2 inch depth so that you have space to make filling embroider stitches properly.

Step 2 Cut  the fabric

Cut out a piece of white fabric which is at least 2 inches longer than your design on all sides.

Cut out 2 pieces of fusible interfacing of the same size; It is preferable if you have one interfacing which is canvas thick and another dress fabric weight.

You can increase the layers if you want a denser look, so cut more interfacing.

Keep the thinner woven interfacing fabric on the back of your fabric piece. Press with hot iron. This will fuse the interfacing piece to the back of your fabric ie sticky side of interfacing piece is fused to back of the fabric piece. Now you have a solid piece of fabric which is apt for making your clothing patch- not too thick that you cannot embroider on it, not too thin that it is floppy.

Step 3 Paint the fabric piece

Measure the dimensions of your embroidery design. Mark this area on the face of the fabric with a chalk or soap sliver.

paint the fabric

Paint the fabric with slightly diluted black paint fully on this area – ensure that the paint is not too thick. Keep aside for the paint to dry. Maybe one to two hours

If you are using light coloured embroidery floss for filling the design you may want to paint only the area of the outline with black paint.

Step 4. Transfer the design

Draw/Transfer the design on top of the black painted area.

mark the design on the painted fabric for the embroidered fabric patch

Step 5 Complete the embroidery

Hoop the fabric, if you prefer to work that way.

Give the outline first. It is the same way we do glass painting.

Outline the desing with back stitches

Make the outline stitch ( I have done back stitch ) along the outline with black embroidery thread.I have used the full 6 strands of embroidery floss for making the outline stitch

Keep the fabric on an embroidery hoop

Rub off the chalk outlines

Fill the inside of the design outlines with satin stitch (preferably) or long and short stitch.I tried both and liked the satin stitch better.Though Satin stitch is better used for filling areas not more than 1/2 inch, for clothing labels I would make an exception and make it 1″.

embroider the design

You can thread your needle with the whole 6 strands and stitch the filling stitches.

complete the embroidery

Step 6 Make one more interfacing layer

Attach one more interfacing piece to the back of the work you have done. If you have a thick interfacing this will be enough to make the design stiff. If it is not, add more layers

the embroidery completed for the patch

Step 7 Cut the design

Cut around the design with very sharp small embroidery scissors. Ensure that you are not cutting your outline stitches. At the same time donot leave fabric outside of the outline stitch. Cut very closely.

Step 8 Paint edges

paint the edges for the embroidered clothing patches diy

Using the black paint again, paint the cut edges of the design.

Step 9 Stick the double sided fusing to the back of the patch

 embroidered fabric patche

Related posts : Make your own denim patches; Learn to sew the patch on jeans easily; Step-by-step patchwork jeans guide

Make a Machine embroidered Patch.

If you can embroider with your sewing machine you can easily make these professional looking embroidered patches.

Hoop a tearaway hand embroidery stabilizer and attach Wool Felt (cut a little bigger than the patch you mean to make) and then do the embroidery on this. Do the embroidery. If you have an embroidery sewing machine you have it easy. Or you can do free motion embroidery on the felt patch. After the work is finished, remove the work from the hoop and the stabiliser. Cut out the patch. You can use fray check on the sides to make sure the sides do not fray.

Check out the different methods to Add Patches to Your Clothes

diy brooch making

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Author: Sarina Tariq

Hi, I love sewing, fabric, fashion, embroidery, doing easy DIY projects and then writing about them. Hope you have fun learning from sewguide as much as I do. If you find any mistakes here, please point it out in the comments.

6 thoughts on “Best way to Make an Embroidered Fabric Patch”

  1. CapKings

    Awesome! Thank you for sharing such an informative post. I think making an embroidered fabric patch is interesting.

    Reply
  2. Stephanie

    What brand of embroidery scissors do you use to cut the fabric?

    Reply
    • Sarina

      Hi Stephanie
      I use an unbranded one : ). I have heard people recommend Kai scissors and Gingher scissors (8 inch) equally passionately for cutting fabric for sewing. For embroidery Gingher embroidery scissors -4 inch.

  3. digitizing services

    Such an informative article for all the embroidery related people this type of blogs surely increase ability on embroidery work.

    Reply
  4. Bradley Rebecca

    Was really searching for such blogs which give me good information about the fabric patch and I found your blog. In which you have given very good and quick understanding information. Really I am very happy with your blog. Thanks for sharing.

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    Reply
  5. Sakshi jadhav

    Really helpful in sewing techniques

    Reply
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