Embroidered Sweater

We love projects that inspire us to take items from our own closets and remake them into new looks! The new year is the perfect time to do this, since we need to clean out our closets anyway. (It’s also a good time to check the thrift stores for sweaters people donate after they cleaned THEIR closet!) And speaking of sweaters…

I was inspired to try embroidery by this tutorial from the folks at Kittenhood.ro . They gave great instructions for tracing a shape and embroidering that shape onto a sweatshirt. Being the lazy person that I am, I decided to try the idea on a sweater that already had a pattern on it. That sweater also happened to be living in my closet already. Although the project took some time, the process was straightforward and turned out to be a great activity for a wintry afternoon.

I gathered my sweater, embroidery floss, large needle, and fabric stabilizer. Thanks to Kittenhood for the recommendation about the stabilizer. I purchased water-soluble stabilizer from the fabric store.

I slipped a thin plastic chopping board between the layers of the sweater. Next, I pinned a small piece of stabilizer over two of the stars. Next time, I would probably try using an embroidery hoop to keep the sweater and stabilizer from slipping.

Using a back-stitch, I stitched around the outline of the small star. Next, I stitched around a larger star using a new color of thread. Cromwell the cat came to supervise my work.

I also stitched around two stars close to the bottom of the sweater. After stitching was complete, I experimented with removing the stabilizer. It did indeed dissolve in water, much like a rice paper candy wrapper. I wet the paper at the sink and pulled the then gooey paper off the fabric as much as possible. I washed the sweater in the washing machine to remove all residue. The stabilizer did work because the stitching and fabric lay flat even after washing and drying.

I love how the embroidery added a subtle pop of color to the sweater! It inspired me to add bright jeans and accessories instead of more basic neutrals. Perfect combo for the new year!