Sweatshirt Makeover with embroidery - Advanced Embroidery Designs

Download PDF

Decorating Sweatshirts with Machine Embroidery

Embroidery is becoming more and more fashionable, and embroidered clothes can be expensive. In this project, we show how to decorate simple sweatshirts and hoodies with embroidery and make them one of a kind. You can embroider the fronts and backs of sweatshirts and hoodies.

You will need:

Embroidery threads, either polyester or rayon (follow our color cards or choose colors to match your sweatshirt)
Light-weight cut-away embroidery stabilizer (it is very important to use a cut-away stabilizer, which stays under the embroidery and prevents shrinking after washing)
A sweatshirt or a hoodie
Iron
Printer and embroidery software to make paper templates, or test stitch-outs of the chosen designs on organza

Sweatshirt #1

A pale yellow sweatshirt with one-color embroidery

This is the simplest sweatshirt makeover. We used the designs from the One-Color Flower Set.

Mark the position of the embroidery on the sweatshirt. If you have a printer and embroidery software, print-outs of the designs will be helpful. If not, we recommend making test stitch-outs on organza, cutting them out, and using them as templates.

This step is important. If you have a mannequin, we recommend putting the sweatshirt on it to get the positioning right. Or you can use yourself and a mirror.

Paper templates help to mark the position of the embroidery.

Stabilize the chosen areas with light-weight cut-away stabilizer. Hoop the fabric and embroider the designs one by one.

Cut away the excess stabilizer after every stitch-out. Cut close to the stitches, but do not try to remove it from under the embroidery. After washing, the stabilizer should remain under the embroidery and help maintain its shape.

Sweatshirt #2

Oatmeal-colored sweatshirt decorated with colored strips and embroidery

For the second sweatshirt, we used the designs from the Elderberry Set.

You will also need 1" wide and about 36" long strips of two or three colors. We used lime green, pale yellow, and brown strips.

Fold each strip in half lengthwise, wrong side inside, and lightly press. Unfold. Fold the edges to the central creased line and press.

Position the strips on the sweatshirt from a shoulder down. Determine the position of the strips and cut them to the desired length.
Fold and press the short edges of the strips inside.
Pin the strips to the sweatshirt and topstitch each strip in place along all edges.

Position the remaining pieces of the strips on another side of the sweatshirt from the hem up. Determine the position and length.
Topstitch them to the sweatshirt as described above.

Attaching the second set of strips to the sweatshirt.

Now make templates of the designs from the Elderberry Set to help find the position of the embroidery.

Paper templates of the embroidery designs help to determine the position of the embroidery.

Embroider the designs one by one.

The finished sweatshirt with elderberry embroidery

Sweatshirt #3

For the pale blue hoodie, we chose the designs from the Whimsical Summer Set and embroidered a whole landscape on its back.

Embroidery on the back of a pale blue hoodie

The technique was the same as described above. We used paper templates to determine the position of each design from the set, then embroidered them one by one using light-weight cut-away stabilizer.

On the front, we repeated the embroidery of the sun.