How to monogram a sweater with your embroidery machine

By Julie on February 13th, 2020
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how to monogram a sweater using an embroidery machine

My mom’s birthday always presents a HUGE challenge, because she is SOOOO incredibly difficult to shop for. A few years ago I was really stuck coming up with a gift idea. I had already given her my favorite gift for Mother’s Day (the monogrammed straw hat). 24 hours prior to her birthday, I still had NO IDEA what to give her. Then – as if divine intervention – inspiration struck and I came up with the idea to it monogram a sweater for her! The only issue? I had NO IDEA what I was doing.

And, of course, I had no sweater purchased suitable for a monogram. So, I headed over to my local TJ Maxx, and among the racks of random tops, I found a bright pink, lightweight sweater that I thought would be perfect for my mom and look really cute monogrammed. So…. I scooped it up and headed home.

It was time to face the unknown. I had never actually embroidered on a sweater. What precautions would I need to take and what supplies would I need for monogramming on a sweater?

Fortunately – nothing very special. In fact, the process of embroidering on a sweater is not too different than the process you would follow when embroidering on a t-shirt.

It was all very easy. And guess what? It turned out super fantastic. And my mom wears that silly monogrammed sweater to this day.

Supplies you need to monogram a sweater

An inexpensive sweater – I purchased the sweater for this project at TJ Maxx. However, you can really buy a sweater just about anywhere. And, actually, now is the perfect time to buy a sweater as many stores are marking down their winter items. But if you are reading this in the summer time, light weight cardigans work great for this project as well.
An an attractive embroidery font. For my sweater, you can see that I just used a single letter of a script typeface (a la Laverne DeFazio on Laverne and Shirley – Google it, Millennials…) However – a three letter monogram would be great as well. Check out my recent post on the 10 best monogram fonts.
Tearaway stabilizer and temporary adhesive spray or adhesive backed stabilizer.
Cutaway stabilizer or a fusible polymesh stabilizer
Invisible ink pen
Sewing pins
Water soluble topper

Steps to take to add a monogram to a sweater

STEP 1: Find the location of the center of the monogram. You can either do this by sight or use the folding method. Mark this point with an invisible ink pen. Stick a pin through the center point so that you can see it on the wrong side of the sweater.

STEP 2: Cut a piece of fusible mesh at least an inch larger than the monogram on all sides and fuse it onto the wrong side of the sweater, centering the piece over the center of the monogram.

STEP 3: Hoop a piece of tearaway stabilizer. If you are using regular tearaway stabilizer, hoop it and then spray it with temporary adhesive spray. (Mask your hoop so that it doesn’t get all gunky like mine.) If you are using adhesive backed stabilizer, score around the inside edge of the hoop with a pin and peel back the paper to expose the sticky surface. Mark the center point of the hooped stabilizer with an invisible ink pen.

STEP 4: Stick the sweater on the hooped stabilizer using the folding method.

STEP 5: Lay a piece of water soluble topper over the sweater, then begin stitching the monogram.

STEP 6: Trim the fusible polymesh stabilizer around the monogram as well as your strings! And voila! You have a perfect monogrammed sweater and the perfect gift for your mom!