T-Shirt Embroidery

Last week, I shared how I was working with a new material, linen jersey knit, and making a T-shirt as a test garment.  There's no reason not to embellish it and test out that aspect of how the material works.  There were some real challenges with the fabric, but surprisingly, the embroidery went smoothly.

The fabric is extremely light weight, so it can only support a low density design.  With the summery fabric and light blue color, I opted for a design that reminds me of the beach.  The design from Embroidery Library can be found here.

For my T-shirts, I like to put the embroidery high, to emphasize the neckline, rather than a more traditional placement in the center of the chest.  Designs that are at least vaguely V-shaped work best for this.  The design I chose isn't completely symmetric, but it works.

For design placement, I printed a copy of the design at exactly the same size as it would stitch out and set the horizontal placement to clear the neckline seam.  The center of the design is on the center of the shirt.  The original colors of light blue and yellow weren't going to work on my blue fabric, so I opted for an off white for the center and tan for the rest of the design.  In the photo, I'm placing the spools on the fabric to see if the colors are pleasing together.

I chose Floriani no show mesh for the stabilizer.  A knit needs a stabilizer that will stick to the fabric somehow to keep the fabric from stretching as it's sewn out.  The no-show mesh stabilizer has a temporary heat bond to the fabric, after stitching, it becomes a lightweight cutaway to permanently stabilize the fabric while not making it stiff.   I was very careful to not move the iron sideways on the fabric while attaching the stabilizer, given my previous problems with ironing this fabric. 

The finished design shows no puckering and blends well with the fabric.  It's more subtle than my usual style, but everyone needs variety.

Come back next week for more Fun with a Sewing Machine!