Making Embroidered Patches

My Brother-In-Law belongs to an American Legion group called the Legion Riders http://www.legion.org/legionriders/ I have made a few patches for them in Memory of lost riders.

Also a special request from him for this patch, his nickname

Special note about this patch-this was not the finished patch, this one is pretty wrinkled, and not stitched out on the actual fabric used, this was a sample sent to him to show the general idea and to get approval for the design itself.

Another special request from a member,

The way that I make patches is to digitize the inside design. My digitizing of lettering has greatly improved due to lessons free and purchased from Carin Sharon at http://www.heavenly-inspirations.com/ great teacher!

Even though I have several fonts that I purchased to use in Embird, once I reduce the lettering to fit inside of a patch it looks pretty horrible without some additional parameter adjustments.

I stitch out the finished designs on a twill/denim fabric then do the outer border. I do it this way so that the outer border won't get distorted. If you stitch the border first then do the design it tends to distort it. I also use a cut-away stabilizer.

Once the design is done I then iron on HeatnBond Ultrahold, following the instructions on the package. (I do not cut the jump stitches on the back, and I also leave the cut-away in place to add more body) Once it has cooled I then trim around the patch as close as I can with scissors, making sure to not cut any of the satin stitches around the outside. Then just peel and remove the paper backing from the HeatnBond.

My experience with patches over the years from many school and scout events is that they don't stay on just by ironing them on. I have always stitched them down, there is also a special glue you can use to put patches on so you can apply them to items that you can't iron, I have never tried that option so I don't have any words of wisdom on its use.