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It’s so fun to embroider on a T-shirt to cover a stain or a hole or just to add some whimsy.
I recently rediscovered this old T-shirt with an inexplicable tiny pocket and decided it needed to have some embroidered flowers coming out of the pocket. Which makes it a great time to talk about tips for how to embroider on a T-shirt.
Tools for T-shirt Embroidery
The main potential problem when it comes to doing embroidery on a T-shirt is that it’s easy to stretch the shirt while you are stitching, which will lead to distortion in the stitching and/or the fabric around the stitching.
This is particularly common if you use an embroidery hoop, because it stretches the fabric and holds it tight. When you take the tension off it can make the stitches look funky.
So the main thing you need to consider when adding stitching to a shirt is how to stabilize the shirt while you stitch so the stitches and the shirt will both look good when you are done.
The easiest way to do that is with water soluble stabilizer. For this demonstration I used a template from the Patemby flowers and leaves collection, which is two sheets with 50 designs you can stick to your fabric and then wash away when you’re done (more details below).
If you want to draw your own design you can use something like Sulky Stitch N Stitch, which is full blank sheets of self-adhesive stabilizer you can draw on, cut out what you need, stick to your shirt, stitch and wash away.
In addition to your design you’ll need embroidery floss and an embroidery needle, plus small scissors for cutting threads.
Setting up Embroidery on a T-shirt
Before you can embroider on a T-shirt you need to get your design in place. Of course you can also freehand like I did on my visible mending embroidery project, but for this one I wanted something a little less free form.
So either draw out or choose your design and cut it out. I like the stems on this one that make it easy to have it look like the flowers are coming out of the pocket.
Leave a little space on all the edges when you cut, and place it on the shirt so you can decide where you want it.
Peel the adhesive backing off the stabilizer and stick the pattern piece where you want it. Press down gently to get it to stick.
How to Embroider on a T-Shirt
Once your design is in place, it’s easy to just stitch over the lines with whatever colors you want. I started with this golden yellow for the stems because it was already on my desk for some reason. I did backstitch to cover the stems and stitched over the tail end of the thread instead of making a knot.
Next I added French knots to the shapes that looked like solid balls. There are three knots of three wraps each in those areas. I went ahead and used knots on the back for these, too, since there isn’t a lot of thread on the back to work into.
After that I added back stitching in dark purple around all of the petals.
Finally I did satin stitch in a lighter purple in the petals where the pattern showed stripes. It’s not essential to follow every line of a pre-printed design like this, but I thought it looked cute.
It’s good to be mindful of what the back looks like, or more important, what it feels like if the embroidery will be touching skin. Mine isn’t too bad, but if you want you can also add a patch of fabric fused on with interfacing to cover the stitching. This will add a bit of weight so it’s not a great option for a T-shirt, but you can do that if you’re stitching on denim or heavier fabrics.
Once you’re happy with the stitching, it’s time to wash! Run the shirt under cold water, rubbing gently if necessary to wash the stabilizer away.
You may need to wash it more than once to get all the adhesive off. It can be a little hard to see when the shirt is wet, but you can see it in the photo above.
Allow to dry and your embellished T-shirt is ready to wear!
Of course this same method can be used to embroider on other fabric such as jeans, flannel shirts and other woven material, even canvas shoes. But it’s so fun to embroider on a T-shirt that’s what I find myself wanting to do most often.
