Embroidering in Small Places Getting INTO a tight spot I once thought that it was difficult to find my way into pant legs, sleeves, and pockets in order to add some embroidery to a garment. But with experience and a bit of insight, I have since found some great and simple ways to wiggle my way into these tight spots. Many of you have written to the "Ask Sarah" column with questions about embroidering in these tight spot, so I decided to take this on in depth. The key is: Get to know the garment before you buy it. When you are shopping, and a particular treasure in just the right color is calling to you from the clearance bin, take a look at it, and get a little bit more information about it before you take it home. What type of sleeves does it have? How are they constructed? What type of seam finishes does the garment have? Is the pocket attached with double or single stitching? How well would it stretch around your hoop? Sleeve Types Dropped Shoulder Sleeves-- The easiest sleeve to construct and deconstruct. Look for dropped shoulder sleeves on garments that you are considering for embroidery. The shoulder seams of the garment are sewn first, then the sleeve is sewn to the front and back of the garment, and finally the side seam is sewn continuously from the wrist to the bottom of the hem of the entire garment. These sleeves fit into the armhole relatively easily with little or no easing. The armhole of this sleeve type is usually file:////inge/inside%20embroidery/projectinstructions/pr1149.html (1 of 9)9/5/2005 6:10:36 PM
large, which makes it comfortable as well as easy to get into for embroidery. Raglan Sleeves--Usually seen on knit garments, these are also easy to get into for embroidery. Look for raglan sleeves as easy to embroider. This sleeve is joined to the body of a garment by a long slanting seam starting at the neck and continuing around the armhole. The stretch of the knit fabric makes it easy to hoop the area to be embroidered, and to stretch the fabric around the hoop. Set-in Sleeves--Usually seen on more formal garments, like tailored shirts and jackets. A set-in sleeve is joined to the body of a garment by a seam starting at the edge of the shoulder and continuing around the armhole. The body of the garment is constructed first, then the sleeve is constructed, and the top of the sleeve is eased or gathered to fit into the armhole of the body. Set-in sleeves are the most difficult to construct and deconstruct because the seams of the sleeve and body are separate entities, and because of the easing or gathering that's needed. Also, the arm hole is smaller than the raglan and dropped shoulder sleeves, giving you less room to maneuver during embroidery. file:////inge/inside%20embroidery/projectinstructions/pr1149.html (2 of 9)9/5/2005 6:10:36 PM
Seam Finishes When considering embroidering for a garment, look at the seam finishes. They will tell you how difficult or easy it will be to open up the seams for embroidery. The key seams to look at are: The inseam on pants and jeans (One side of each leg is usually a serged seam rather than flat felled.) The underarm seams Side body seams Pocket stitching You will find two common seam finishes on garments in a store. Flat felled seams A flat-felled seam is sewn with the wrong sides of your fabric together, then the seam allowances are pressed to one side. One side of the seam is trimmed to 1/8" to 1/4" and the wider seam allowance is folded in half and sewn over the cut edge. Two parallel lines of stitching will be showing on the outside of the garment when finished. Flat felled seams are generally found on jeans, casual clothing, and work clothing. Meant to be a heavy-duty finish, flat felled seams are time-consuming to rip out and are difficult to reproduce well. file:////inge/inside%20embroidery/projectinstructions/pr1149.html (3 of 9)9/5/2005 6:10:36 PM
Serged seams A serged seam joins two pieces of material with a thread stitch that interlocks. A standard seam finish, serged seams are relatively easy to take apart. You can find serged seams on all garment types. When you're out shopping, look for serged seam finishes on garments that you are considering for embroidery. Pockets Look for pockets that are attached with just one row of stitching. They are much easier to remove and replace than those with multiple rows of stitching. Now that you know what characteristics to look for, let's take a look at how to make the most of them when you are in your sewing room. Sleeves When you want to put a small design in the middle of a sleeve without having to take the sleeve apart, using your small hoop can work beautifully. Here's how... With a piece of stabilizer positioned behind the fabric, slide the bottom piece of the hoop into the sleeve. Then insert the top part of the hoop into the bottom as shown. You can only go so far into the sleeve for placement, because you will have to bring the hoop through the armhole opening to embroider your design. file:////inge/inside%20embroidery/projectinstructions/pr1149.html (4 of 9)9/5/2005 6:10:36 PM
Bring the hooped part of the sleeve through the armhole, (hoop and all.) so that the hoop sits within the armhole while you are embroidering. Pull all of the extra fabric away from under the hoop. Use spring clothespins or clips to hold excess fabric out of the way of the needle. Using this method, I was able to embroider about of the way down the sleeve of an XL denim shirt. file:////inge/inside%20embroidery/projectinstructions/pr1149.html (5 of 9)9/5/2005 6:10:36 PM
Pants and jeans The leg of a pair of pants can be embroidered in a similar way. The area is hooped, then the hooped part is brought out through the waist opening. The hoop can then be positioned so that it sits within the top leg opening, and the excess fabric is pulled away from the area to be embroidered. Using this method, I was able to embroider about two-thirds of the way down the leg. If the jeans hadn't had a tapered leg, I could have gone farther. On flared leg jeans, also try working through the opening at the hem end of the legs. Open a Seam If you want to use a larger hoop and design, you can make hooping a breeze by opening up the seam. I found a jean jacket and a pair of purple jeans that each have serged seams in the underarm and inseam. It took me about 10 minutes to open up both a sleeve and a leg on each garment. Here, I am cutting the serger loops with a seam ripper. Once the loops are cut on one side, the rest of the serged edge can be brushed away from the other side. I use an old toothbrush to grab the loose threads easily. file:////inge/inside%20embroidery/projectinstructions/pr1149.html (6 of 9)9/5/2005 6:10:36 PM
Once the serging is removed, cut a few of the seam stitches and insert the ball side of your seam ripper into the seam. Use the blade to quickly cut the thread of the stitches. I find that by using the ball side, the seam ripper slides smoothly through the seam without catching on the fabric. On the jeans, I unstitched the part of the hem where the inseam meets it, then opened up the entire leg. Now there is lots of room for me to play with my embroidery! One caution: I did break a couple of needles embroidering over the side seam of my jeans, so be careful, and position your design so that it will have very few, if any, stitches that cross the seam. For the sleeve of the jean jacket, I opened the sideunderarm seam the entire length of the sleeve from the top of the cuff to just beyond the underarm area. This gave me lots of room to play. I did not take the cuff apart. Doing so would have made my project much more timeconsuming and would not have afforded me much more space in the sleeve to embroider. file:////inge/inside%20embroidery/projectinstructions/pr1149.html (7 of 9)9/5/2005 6:10:36 PM
This jacket has a seam at the top of the sleeve that I had to be cautious around, but most garments do not have that seam, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about this with the sleeves that you try. Pockets Instead of taking off an entire pocket, just open up the stitching on the sides. The pocket can then be stuck to hooped stabilizer just like a collar tip or cuff. file:////inge/inside%20embroidery/projectinstructions/pr1149.html (8 of 9)9/5/2005 6:10:36 PM
Hooping a stretchable fabric Hoop the area to be embroidered without stretching the fabric, then when the hoop is tightened, stretch the remainder of the fabric over the hoop, and away from the back of the area to be embroidered. Click here for a printable version of this page. You ll need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. If you don't have it, you can download a free copy by clicking on the icon below. file:////inge/inside%20embroidery/projectinstructions/pr1149.html (9 of 9)9/5/2005 6:10:36 PM