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Did you know you can create one-of-a-kind and personalized artwork with hand embroidery? All you need is an embroidery needle and thread, and you are already halfway there. Read along as I share an easily feasible DIY where you control how hard or easy it will be!
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Materials
- Embroidery needle
- Embroidery floss in the color of your choice
- Embroidery hoop dependent on the size of your design
Optional
- White t-shirt (Women’s Short Sleeve Casual T-Shirt – A New Day™)
- Cricut Explore Air 2
- Vinyl
- Washable fabric tracing pen
I love the simplicity and dainty-ness of delicate script font on fabric and desperately wanted to figure out how to make my chosen design come to life. Embroidery might feel daunting, but in reality hand embroidery for me has been very therapeutic and I can control how difficult the design can be.
How to make it
I chose a font script for the “vintage” design and a standard Arial font for the numbers. I wanted a stencil that was thick enough to provide a guide for the hand embroidery and that the letters were closely touching to create the desired effect of a rolling script font.
I did this in Cricut Design Space very quickly and welded all letters together before I cut out the stencil, so the design was one cohesive piece and would cut seamlessly. If you would like to see a more in-depth tutorial on how to weld individual letters together in Cricut Design Space visit my cutting tutorial here.
The vinyl I chose to use was very tacky and stuck to the fabric beautifully, so I really didn’t need a washable fabric tracing pen. If you feel the vinyl stencil would get in your way, use a fabric pen to trace your vinyl stencil outline and remove the vinyl stencil before embroidering.
Choosing the right technique
I chose to use a stem stitch and am so happy I did. I really like the look of the stitch and was easy enough to try. I am by no means a master, but it worked well with embroidering the script font. Are there better stitch styles to use? Yes. Would I change anything for this design? No!
Want to see different stitch styles in action? Sewing Blog Treasurie has an awesome and comprehensive list of many stitch styles to choose from and how to create them for yourself. This post by Treasurie here was my lifesaver and showed complete step-by-step tutorials that were easy to follow.
Hot Tip: Separate the embroidery floss before stitching so the design is not as bold and not use excess thread.
How to DIY Hand Embroider Any Design on a T-shirt
Ingredients
- Embroidery hoop in size of choice
- Embroidery thread in color of choice
- Embroidery needle
Optional
- Cricut Explore Air 2
- Vinyl
- Washable Fabric Tracing Pen
- White t-shirt
Instructions
- Choose a font of your choice that will be used as a stencil.
- Once you have your font, open Cricut Design Space and prepare your design. Read more with my in-depth tutorial on how to weld individual letters together in Cricut Design Space by visiting my cutting tutorial here.
- Choose a very tacky vinyl that will stick to fabric and act as your stencil. Feel free to not use a vinyl stencil and use a fabric pen to trace your vinyl stencil outline.
- Choose the right stitch technique. Easy stitch styles to use are running stitch, backstitch, and stem stitch.
- Separate the embroidery floss before stitching so the design is not as bold and not use excess thread.