With the holidays approaching, I’m thinking I want to offer gifts that are personalized and hand made. I thought I’d share with you one of my favourite ways to make a home made gift that is easy, quick and very affordable. I’m going to teach you how to hand embroider a t-shirt using this free moon & stars design.
What you will need
For this project, I highly recommend using an old t-shirt that might not be getting worn as often as it could. Adding an embroidered design just might be the perfect detail to bring it to the top of the well loved pile. This design is also great to cover a stain or small holes on a shirt as the design incorporates the star stitch. It’s one of my favourite techniques to repair a small hole. For this project, I’m using one of my kids old black t-shirts which will be perfect to show off the moon and stars design.
Supplies
Here are the items you will need for this project:
A t-shirt
Print out of the moon and stars embroidery design or design of your own making
Paper scissors
Fabric chalk (for dark fabric) or washable marker (for lighter fabric)
Embroidery hoop
Needle and embroidery thread
Preparing to hand embroider the T-shirt
Print out the Moon & Stars embroidery design. The actual size is perfect for an adult t-shirt. If you prefer to embroider it onto a kids size top, you can reduce the size. I reduced it to 50% before printing it out. Once printed out, cut out the shapes of the moon and a circle at the center of each star.
Next, I positioned the design on the top right side of the t-shirt. I want the moon to look like it’s an embellished logo. You can position the embroidery wherever you prefer. Centred in the front or at the bottom slightly to the side also looks nice. Use a washable marker to trace the design on a light coloured t-shirt. If you’re embroidering a dark t-shirt, use fabric chalk.
Place embroidery hoop over the design. The hoop will allow you to work on a flat surface which will make hand embroidering your t-shirt much easier. For this project, I used a single strand of embroidery floss and tied both ends in a knot so that I embroider with a double strand without the risk of losing the needle.
Stitches to hand embroider a t-shirt
For the moon, I decided to go with a back stitch. Have a look at the image below to see how to start it. If you’ve never done a backstitch before, you can have a look at this video tutorial.
Next I used a simple star stitch for the stars. This is also a great stitch to use when you want to repair a small hole in a t-shirt. Click on the image below for a tutorial I shared on instagram.
The finished t-shirt
This project took under an hour to make and I’m really pleased with the result. It’s simpe yet stylish and quite versatile which would work for either a boy or a girl. Since the t-shirt no longer fits my kids, I will be gifting this newly embroidered t-shirt to a young friend. Here’s hoping it gets lots of love. Are you inspired to do the same? Share your work on social media and tag me so I can see your beautiful work.
If you’re looking for a more elaborate project to gift to a loved one, have a look at my LOVE Embroidery Pattern on Etsy. There’s something quite special about making an embroidered piece. The making is a gift of time and love just as much to yourself as to the person receiving it.