How to Make an Embroidered Patch by Hand

Gather your tear-away backing, a piece of cotton fabric, your drawing, a hoop and floss. Lay the drawing under the backing and trace it with a pen. Shmoxd wanted the design reversed, so the backing gets flipped over before the cloth goes on top. Think about which way your patch should face once it is finished before you trace.

Put the smaller inner ring under the fabric and backing. Loosen the screw on the outer ring until it slips over everything, then press it down. Pull on the edges of the cloth all the way around until it is tight like a drum, and tighten the screw. A tight hoop keeps the stitches even and stops the patch from puckering.

Start with the color that covers the most area. Tie a knot at the end of the floss and come up from the back. Lay long horizontal stitches line by line, starting at the top and working down. Come up on one side and go down on the other. Trim the tail of the first stitch on the back so it does not snag. A phone light under the hoop shows the lines.

When the first color runs out or is done, tie it off on the back and cut the extra. Start the next color the same way, with a knot and up from the back. Shmoxd adds red circles for the pepperoni, layering the stitches on top to bottom. The crust switches to vertical stitches so it looks different from the cheese.

Once every color is filled in, add the detail lines in black. Start like any other color. Come up from the back a little ahead of where you want the line to end. Then go down through the front where the line starts. Repeat over and over, so each stitch overlaps the last, until all the drips and edges of the design are drawn in.

Loosen the screw and take the patch out of the hoop. Gently tear the stabilizer away from around the stitching. Shmoxd notes his mistake here: he cut the patch out too early. It is easier to leave the fabric whole for now, add the iron-on adhesive to the back, and cut the patch out after that. It still works either way.

Cut a piece of heat bond roughly the size of your patch. It has a rough side and a smooth paper side. Place the rough side against the back of the patch. Lay a scrap of cloth over the front to protect the floss and the iron. Press firmly, getting into all the creases, and iron both the front and the back.

With the adhesive on, cut the patch out of the fabric. Get close, but leave about an eighth of an inch of cloth all the way around the stitching. That little margin is what the border stitches wrap over. Then peel the paper backing off the heat bond so the glue side is ready to iron onto a jacket later.

Add a thin line of fray stop glue around the whole outer edge of the patch. Shmoxd uses a bottle with a fine tip and runs a small dab along every side. This keeps the cut cloth from unravelling while you stitch the border. Let it dry fully before the last step.

Come up from the back near the edge. Instead of going around and up from the back again, make the next stitch from the top going down, so the floss wraps over the edge. Stitch over the starting tail to hide it. Work all the way around, side by side and very close, so no cloth shows. Tie off with a square knot, trim, and iron it on.