Decorating Old Garments with Embroidery

By Janome Maker: Duy Truong

(Project Level: Beginner and for everyone!)

Hi everyone, Duy here, aka CafeDeDuy!

Today we’ll be focusing on making use out of plain old garments with embroidery, thanks to our Janome embroidery machines!

Most of us have clothing that are pretty plain in appearance, sometimes only worn once. And it just needs a little thing to add our personality to it. For me, it’s a green vest I bought once for a wedding. It’s not quite my style, but now it could be!

So today, I’ll be embroidering it to match my style with song lyrics from a show I love.

WHAT YOU NEED:

  • Janome Skyline S9 (or any Janome embroidery machine) with the embroidery hoop
  • (Optional, if you have to take apart thick garments, the Janome Heavy Duty machine is a great option for a very sturdy straight stitch to put it back together)
  • A garment you want to decorate
  • Embroidery Stabilizer Paper

PART ONE:

Gather your materials and design in your head. For me, I don’t want the embroidery design to stand out too much on a vest, but I want it to be noticeable and “earth tones.” So I’ll be using brown embroidery thread, and the biggest hoop size for my machine because I want to utilize the space I need.

PART TWO:

Place your garment flat in your hoop. It doesn’t matter how you lay it out because thanks to Janome’s plastic hoop grids, you can map out your physical item to the design on the screen.

Luckily for us, Janome embroidery machines also have a select style of fonts ready for us installed, all you gotta do is type out your words – if you’re doing song lyrics like me. Janome also have designs ready as well, or you can import your own designs.

It is very IMPORTANT that you make sure your embroidery design on the screen matches the squares on the grid to the physical plastic grid if you want your designs to go where it needs to go. (Unless you don’t mind).

It is also important that you have stabilizer paper under your garment, that way the repetitive fast needle punctures don’t damage the fabric, especially for garments where the fabrics are a lot thinner and the fibers are not as condensed.

PART THREE:

Repeat until you are satisfied with your outcome, and then tear out the stabilizer paper.

VOILA! Your garment is ready for you to wear, just a little bit more of you!

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