Hello again! Have you ever used your home embroidery machine to make a patch? If not, it's actually really simple - and I am here to show you how. If you have sewn a patch before, but you are looking to level-up your patch game, I have been working on a faux-Merrow look for your edges and I am going to share that with you. So grab some supplies and let's get started!
Materials You Will Need
Before we dive into the embroidery magic, let's make sure you have all your materials lined up:
Embroidery Machine: Of course.
Embroidery Hoop: We will be making a 3in patch today, so I am using a 4in hoop on my Brother PE535 embroidery machine to sew this patch.
Tear-Away Stabilizer: I am using a medium-weight tear-away stabilizer for this project. Learn about stabilizers and where to buy them in this blog post.
Twill Fabric: Ideally, cotton/poly twill works best for sewing patches, but I have used everything from canvas to heavy flannel. If you have some cotton twill around the house, we will be using a 4in square. Twill fabric is widely available, both on the internet and at your local fabric store.
Water Soluble Stabilizer (WSS): This is debatable. Many tutorials out there use water soluble stabilizer, often referred to as "WSS" when making patches at home. I find that I like to use something slightly heavier, as the edge of the patch can start to pull away once you start to sew the satin edge. I have had great outcomes using dry cleaning bags, which is an old trick I learned back in my boutique-embroidery days. I have used both methods and achieved good results with both.
Now that we have our supplies, let's jump into the patch-making process!
First, let's choose a design. Whether you're into cute little animals, a name or initials, or a logo, you can put anything you want on a patch, which is what makes them so much fun. For this tutorial, I'm going to make a 3in round patch with my daughter's logo that we designed together for her to use for her own projects.
Hooping
To set up your hoop for your patch, you are going to hoop one piece of tear-away backing under one pieces of WSS. Hoop these 2 pieces tightly in your frame.
Placement Stitch
I like to set up my patch files manually, choosing the stitches I want to sew for each layer, but most digitizing and embroidery software have an appliqué setting. If you have never sewn appliqué before, the first layer of stitching that goes down is your placement stitch. This stitch is a running stitch and sits a few millimeters in from the satin edge of your patch and it's going to serve as a guide to tell you where to put your twill fabric. We are going to stitch this 3in running-stitch onto our tear-away/WSS sandwich.
Tackdown Stitch
After stitching your placement stitch, we are going to place our twill on top of the circle and stitch another running-stitch over the top of your fabric. You can either float the twill fabric right over your tear-away/WSS sandwich, or, you can spray a light layer of spray adhesive on the back of your twill for extra security. I find that I do not need it, and I don't like the adhesive getting on my needles, so I choose to float my fabric. Stitch this second running-stitch around your twill, which tacks your fabric down.
Trim Your Twill
After you have tacked down your fabric, you are going to trim around the edge as closely as possible. A pair of sharp scissors with curved blades that are meant for appliqué work best for this task. I like this pair from AllStitch.com, but there are many types available on the internet. The curved edge protects your backing layers from getting snipped while you are trimming your fabric layer.
Sew Your Design
Once you have trimmed your excess twill away, you should be left with a clean circle of twill that is tacked down to your backing layers. Now, we are ready to sew the patch. My daughters patch has a white background with her logo "mmm Toast" logo in the middle. I have setup the file to stitch the white background and then the sating and faux-Merrow edge, which leads us to the fun part...
Faux-Merrow Edge
Did you even wonder how commercially-made patches get that clean, edge? Well, they aren't using an embroidery machine. There is a special machine, designed specifically for sewing patch edges, and it's called a Merrow Machine. It's essentially a serger that puts a decorative, finishing edge around patches and emblems. You can learn all about the Merrow machine here on the company website. It's actually a very interesting history, and the design of the machine has hardly changed since it was originally engineered. But, since most people don't have a Merrow machine at home, we are going to created a faux-Merrow edge for our patch. I searched the internet for different tutorials on how to create a faux-Merrow edge and discovered that post people are fairly proprietary about how they create their own faux-Merrow edge, so I decided to create my own to share with you. First, we are going to stitch a 3mm satin stitch. Some patch tutorials stop here, and that's perfectly fine. But if you want to level-up your patch edge and make it look more like a manufactured patch with a Merrow edge, you can add a reverse blanket stitch a few millimeters inside the satin edge. You are going to stitch this reverse-blanket stitch in the same color as your satin-stitch, but I have changed the color here so you can see the effect. I adjusted the blanket stitch settings to my desired width to achieve this faux-Merrow look.
Finish Your Patch
Now it's time to finish stitching the design, and that's it! Once you are finished stitching, remove your patch by simply pulling the patch away from the backing.
Trim excess thread away and use a lighter to lightly burn any fuzz away from the edge, and you are left with a clean, faux-Merrow edge on your beautiful new patch!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. You are on your way to making beautiful patches.
Happy stitching!
Beth
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