Faux embroidery: personalize with a regular sewing machine!

This is one of my favorite tricks. Using a regular old sewing machine, you can personalize anything! Not really anything, not bricks or puppies or vegetables or what have you; I'm focusing on fabric here. Because my girls are close to the same size, I wanted to try something that wasn't a name so they could share it. Lots of their little tees and things have "peace," "love," "BFFs!" and that sort of thing. I chose "happiness" for my little Florence fans.

There's a short way and a long way to do this.

First, the long way.

Use tracing paper to write out your word or name. So nice and neat, just like my third grade cursive handwriting workbook!

Grab your garment or pattern piece--start with something cheap and easy. Don't start with a knit--although once you get the hang of it, you could try a knit, with some serious fusible interfacing stuck to it. I'm using this skirt (which used to be a top, but that's a boring story).

Thread your bobbin with regular old 6-strand embroidery floss.

The main thread will be a regular spool of thread in the same color. The bobbin will look like this:

Then, using colored colored tracing paper and a tracing wheel, on the wrong side, trace your word. 

Then you have this:

Now, very slowly and carefully, sew along the word. Use a short stitch length, and when you get to a corner or tight bend, raise the foot and pivot, then lower the foot. This may take a little practice if you've never done something similar before. You also may need to experiment with the tension setting--it can be a little wonky with two very different threads working together.

Voila! Now use a needle to hide those end threads, and while you're at it, you can correct any mistakes.  See how I missed a stitch in that "a"? I can fix that by hand. 

All those extra buttons from new clothes go in this basket. Don't tell the producers at Hoarders. They would confiscate them all and I wouldn't have the perfect dot for my "i".

And the best part is: you can toss this sucker in the washer and dryer.

Or maybe the best part is, you can easily snip it right out if it's a hand-me-down and you need to switch names.

 Which brings me to the short version. Rather than go through all the tracing, just freehand a name or word on the inside of the garment in pencil. Then stitch it. This one has a backward slant, but it's still cute on a $5 dress.

Now you're free to write stuff all over your clothes, and you don't even have to go buy an expensive embroidery machine!