Hand embroidery on clothes

To embroider on clothes by hand, wash and dry the garment first, put the design on with a stick-on stabilizer or another transfer, keep stretchy fabric from stretching while you stitch, and secure every thread end on the back. Sturdy woven fabric such as denim, twill and canvas generally needs no backing. T-shirts, sweatshirts and other knits need a stabilizer that sticks or irons on.

What to use for each kind of garment

Match the needle to the thread. A size 7 embroidery needle is a safe choice for two or three strands of floss, and a size 5 or 3 for all six. If the fabric dents and you have to fight to get the eye through, or the thread drags with a loud zipper noise, move to a larger needle. The needle sizes guide has the full chart, where two published charts also give a size 9 for two strands.

For thread, one thread maker's garment projects use the equivalent of two to four strands of floss, and up to six for a heavier line. See how many strands of floss to use.

How to embroider on clothes, step by step

1. Wash and dry the garment. Cotton shrinks, and new fabric carries sizing. Wash and dry it the way you plan to once it is in use, so the shrinking happens before you stitch instead of puckering the embroidery afterward. Iron out the wrinkles before the design goes on.
2. Choose the spot. Try the garment on and mark the place. Check that your hand can reach the inside behind it, because you need to get to the back to end your threads. A small opening, such as the neck of a baby garment, makes that hard. The placement chart gives common positions.
3. Transfer the design. Sticky wash-away stabilizer comes in printable sheets. Print or draw the design on the fabric-like side, cut it out with a border, peel off the paper backing and stick it to the right side of the garment. You can lift it and move it until you start stitching. Print on the draft or lowest ink setting. Other methods are in how to transfer a pattern.
4. Stabilize knits. See the next section.
5. Hoop one layer. Slide the inner ring inside the garment so only the layer you are stitching is in the hoop. Pick a hoop that takes the whole design if you can, because not having to move the hoop gives a better result. The stabilizer should reach past the edge of the hoop.
6. Stitch. When the fabric is taut in a hoop, or you are going through more than one layer, it is easier to stab the needle straight down and bring it straight back up than to scoop the fabric in one move.
7. Secure the ends. Clothes get washed and the back is exposed, so keep it tidy. A small knot is fine to start. To finish, whip the thread around the backs of nearby stitches, make a small hitch knot and trim. You can also leave long tails and weave them through the back of the stitching at the end. Do not leave threads strung between areas; run them under the backs of stitches already there.
8. Remove the stabilizer. Rinse under warm running water, rubbing gently with your fingers until it dissolves. If the design was printed, let the water run off the garment instead of soaking it in a bowl, so ink is not carried into the fabric. Dry it flat on a towel.
9. Cover the back if it touches skin. A soft iron-on backing made to cover stitches goes over the inside of the embroidery so the thread does not itch. The maker's own tip for keeping it on through washing is to cut it with pinking shears and fuse it with steam.

Stabilizer for stretchy fabric

Knit fabric stretches while you stitch, and without help you can end up with a puckered mess. The stabilizer has to be one that does not stretch, and it has to stick to the fabric, either with adhesive or with an iron.

• Sticky wash-away stabilizer goes on the front, carries the pattern, and washes away when you finish. The catch is that the adhesive can gum up the needle. Run the needle through an emery now and then to clean it.
• Soft iron-on backing goes on the inside and stays there. It supports the fabric and the stitches without changing how the fabric feels.

Denim, twill and canvas are generally heavy enough to support dense stitching without any lining. On those, a sticky sheet is only a way to carry the pattern.

Stitches that suit clothing

Garment projects from one thread and stabilizer maker rely on a handful of stitches. Back stitch, stem stitch, chain stitch and running stitch handle lettering and outlines, and French knots make dots.

Keep satin stitch small. It suits a small area, and the larger the area, the more the stitches tend to loosen. A rule of thumb is to keep an unpadded satin stitch under about half an inch (about 1.3 cm) long. For bigger shapes, fill with rows of stem stitch, chain stitch or split stitch worked from the outline inward, or use long and short stitch.

For words, script lettering with joined letters means fewer places to start and stop a thread.

Notes by garment

T-shirts and baby clothes. Knit is unforgiving of mistakes. Stitches are hard to pick out of it, they can leave marks, and it is easy to snip one of the fabric's own threads while you are removing them. Settle the design before you start. While you stitch, check the back now and then, because the knit can pull away from the stabilizer as the needle goes through. In a tight space, a short needle is easier to handle when you end a thread on the back.

Sweatshirts. A crew neck keeps a hood out of the way of the stitching. For a word along the neckline, one maker's project sets the letters about 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7.5 cm) tall and slits the lower edge of the sticker so it bends with the curve of the neckband.

Sweaters. On a loosely knit sweater you can stitch with chunky yarn and a large-eye yarn needle. Check first that the needle passes through the knit without snagging or distorting it. The sweater has to be washable, since the stabilizer comes off with water. Keep each length of yarn to 18 inches (46 cm) or less so it does not twist and knot, leave a tail of 3 to 4 inches (7.5 to 10 cm) on the inside when you start, and weave the tails through the back of the stitching when you finish.

Jeans, denim jackets and canvas totes. Denim is a twill, and twill and canvas are heavy, sturdy cottons. They are harder to push a needle through than light cotton or linen, and they call for a sharp needle. A thimble protects the finger that takes the brunt of the needle, though plenty of embroiderers work without one. Both fabrics shrink, so the prewash matters here too.

Canvas shoes. Keep the motifs small, and put them where you can still reach the inside of the shoe to make the stitches. When you finish, rinse the stabilizer away under warm running water.

Washing embroidered clothes

Dark thread, such as deep red and black, can give off dye when it is wet. How to wash embroidery has a section on embroidered clothes and covers what to do if a color bleeds.

Common problems

• The knit puckers. It had no stabilizer, or the stabilizer came away from the fabric. A little puckering that shows while the piece is in the hoop can relax once the stabilizer is rinsed out.
• The fabric pulls in around the stitches. The thread is being pulled too tight. Fabric held taut in a hoop makes it easier to judge the pull.
• The needle feels sticky and drags. Adhesive from the stabilizer has built up on it. Clean it with an emery.
• A ring shows where the hoop was. Take the hoop off, or at least loosen it, at the end of each session so the fabric can relax.
• The back scratches. Fuse a soft backing over it.

If a design goes wrong on a garment you want to keep, see how to remove stitches. Expect it to be hard on knits.