5 Tips for Embroidering on Garments

Adding embroidery to a handmade garment is a beautiful way to make it your own. But deciding where to place your embroidery, how much to stitch and how to make the design feel part of the garment can be surprisingly tricky.

After embroidering two very different blouses with the same Cow's Parsley pattern, I discovered five little principles that helped me bring the designs together:

1. Repeat rather than enlarge. Build a larger embroidery composition by repeating smaller motifs.
2. Echo nature. Create organic arrangements with gentle variations in placement, direction and spacing.
3. Leave breathing room. Allow the untouched fabric to become part of your design.
4. Let the silhouette guide you. Use necklines, seams and openings to inform your embroidery placement.
5. Create movement. Consider how the direction and flow of your embroidery lead the eye across the garment.

Below, I'll show you how I used these ideas on two very different garments and how you might adapt them for your own makes. I also have a free project at the end for you, if you're just getting started. 

 

Why I Love Embroidering Garments

Garment embellishment was the heart behind my venture into embroidery. Some of you know I’ve been slowly building my wardrobe, and it was the reason I started sewing. I love how both these art forms can weave into everyday life and I have been dreaming of the day I could combine them in garment making. There is something deeply restorative about capturing nature in thread to wear again and again. 

If you've been following the journey of my little pattern business you'll know I have been designing both sewing and embroidery patterns. Sometimes as I draft a sewing pattern I imagine it decorated with embroidery. Other times as I'm working on an embroidery design I can visualise it so clearly on a sewn piece. With these latest wardrobe makes it felt as though both worlds collided serendipitously. I had drafted two blouses of very different shapes that I knew were just meant to hold embroidery. One romantic and flowing. One more structured and graphic. I made toiles of both and left the final makes to complete another day while I continued working on the next chapter of our Wild Irish Flora embroidery collection, Cow's Parsley.

As I stitched the hoop version of this delicate flower for the first time, I knew this was the embroidery design destined to embellish my two blouses. The softness of Cow's Parsley would lend itself beautifully to placement on garments. Rather than drawing attention to itself, it seemed to settle gently into cloth, much like it settles into the landscape. And somehow this one pattern was going to compliment two very different garments with just a little variation in placement and composition. 

The first garment was a soft white peasant blouse. With gathered neckline and cuffs and a sweet drawstring tie, it is a dreamy, romantic style that feels so elegant to wear. The embroidery placement needed a delicate touch but also a flow to the design. I envisioned a drift of cow's parsley across the upper half of the front bodice, blooming towards the neckline. Rather than enlarging the motif, I chose to repeat it. I embroidered four of the pattern motifs in total, reversing some horizontally and staggering placement height and angle to give organic variation. I stitched the whole pattern white on white for a gentle effect echoing the softness of the garment's silhouette. 

Here, repetition allowed me to create a larger composition without losing the delicate proportions of the original design. The gathered neckline gave the embroidery somewhere to grow towards, while the irregular placement helped it feel like a little patch of wildflowers.

The second blouse was a sleeveless, button down vest in oatmeal linen. I created a more graphic panel effect by embroidering one pattern motif on each side of the front bodice. I reversed one horizontally again to give a more organic feel and used soft white thread to add a little more emphasis to the embroidery while still giving it a gentle air with white on beige. The result feels beautifully decorative and yet softly understated. The embroidery frames the front bodice panels shaping the button down structure and emphasing the fabric covered buttons as a little feature. 

I loved playing with delicacy in these pieces allowing the embroidery to frame the garment rather than dominate it. It's a style that feels right for me and something that resonated with me when I recently explored Whitework Embroidery. Not everything has to shout to be beautiful. I've found that these understated pieces we create often leave the deepest impression, because, as both a maker and wearer, they nurture stillness.

In the process of embellishing these pieces there were principles that stuck with me I know I will reuse again and again to make the process smoother. I've listed them below and hope they are helpful to you too. 

I didn't stray from the designed size of my embroidery pattern. Instead I added volume which gave that sense of mass where I needed it. It also meant I could follow the original thread strand decisions without having to rediscover a new balance to the composition. 

When planning a larger embroidery design, try repeating a smaller motif before increasing its scale. You can build a more substantial composition while keeping the original proportions and stitch choices intact.

Nature is always beautifully irregular. Gardening experts will tell you to plant in odd numbers to echo a flora's organic rhythms. Advice that stands true in embroidering as well as planting them! So allowing repetitions you make to follow an uneven pattern can feel more nature tuned. Simple variations when repeating a pattern also add to a realistic expression. For me this included reversing some motifs, elongating a few stems and staggering the height and angle of each repeat.

Another lesson I learned in my Irish Whitework exploration was the importance of negative space. Enjoy playing with the balance between embroidered and untouched space. It can be tempting to feel we need to fill space, but breathing room will make the stitches shine all the more. Negative space deserves as much consideration as the embroidery....allow it to become part of your unique design.

With embroidery on garments, you can see the silhouette as a restriction or as a guiding canvas. I think the most convincing placements happen when the garment shape is considered and echoed sympathetically. The result is a piece that feels like one, not two disciplines fighting for attention. 

On the peasant blouse, the embroidery drifts towards the gathered neckline. On the linen vest, it frames the button opening. In both cases, the garment itself helped determine where the embroidery belonged.

Before choosing your placement, take a little time to look at the garment's necklines, seams, openings and overall shape. They may offer just the guidance you need.

While the garment's silhouette is our canvas border...the possibilities within it are endless. Movement, direction, flow and orientation all become tools in your hands as the designer. 

A motif repeated in a straight line can create a very different impression from one that gently curves towards a neckline. Flowers arranged vertically might lengthen the appearance of a panel, while a scattered composition can feel softer and more informal.

Think about where you want the eye to travel across the garment, and how the embroidery might guide it there. Such different effects can be expressed through these little design decisions, even when working with exactly the same embroidery pattern.

One of the greatest joys of designing embroidery patterns is watching them take on a life beyond the original sketch. The same pattern can become a drift across a blouse, a bold feature on a linen vest or something entirely different in another maker's hands. I continue to be amazed by the beautiful creations that can grow from the same humble supplies, simply with needle, thread and your creativity.

I hope these garments encourage you to experiment with your own ideas and express the creativity you hold in your heart. If you'd like to stitch your own version, you'll find the Cow's Parsley embroidery pattern here.

A Free Project to Practise

If you're new to combining sewing and embroidery, you don't have to start with a whole garment.

My free Heather Pin Cushion is a lovely little place to practise. The sewing pattern includes clear placement markings to help you position your embroidery before construction. It's a small, simple project that introduces the idea of planning embroidery placement before you sew that will help build your confidence for larger makes. 

You'll receive both the Heather embroidery pattern and the Pin Cushion sewing pattern when you join my Letters from the Journal.

Lisa xx