Jean Jackets are a true classic and a great canvas for machine embroidery. The Free Brother Design this month is perfect for stitching on denim! In this project you’ll learn about adhesive type stabilizer and see how to hoop a jacket back to stitch two motifs color matched to coordinate with your denim.
Materials and Supplies
- Brother Sewing and Embroidery Machine
- Brother Free Design of the month
- SA5906 Brother Adhesive Backed Water-Soluble Stabilizer
- Brother embroidery thread and bobbin thread
- Embroidery needle for embroidering.
- Wash away marker or chalk
- Gridded mat or other similar surface for aligning fabric in the hoop.
- One piece of felt- optional but helpful for testing new color combinations. Back the felt with a piece of Brother cut-away or tear-away stabilizer for best results.
For optional couching on jacket back seams:
- Brother Couching Dual Feed Foot for select Brother machine models. Note: This accessory may be included with your machine or available separately as an add-on accessory.
- Yarn suitable for couching.
- Jeans needle size 16 for couching yarn.
- Sharp, large-eyed hand needle for feeding yarn to back of jacket.
- Seam sealant for treating ends of couched yarn.
Brother Free Design of the Month
Original Colors: Shades of blue
Modified Colors: Light, medium & very dark grey
FD_September 2017_Dove with Flowers.pes
Design size: 5.00” X 4.00”
Steps to Create Embroidery on Jacket
- Please review instructions before beginning this project. Test design on felt using a mixture of colors similar to your jacket for a subtle, tone on tone effect. This jacket features a light, medium, and very dark grey to color coordinate with the special color of the denim jacket. Felt is available in many colors. You may be able to find a piece that is very close to the jacket color. See Figure #1.
Note: The featured free design fits within a 5” X 7” hoop. You can choose to stitch to separate motifs, using the mirror image function on your machine to create a look similar to the one shown here. In this example two motifs were combined and stitched in an 8” X 12” hoop. For most jacket back areas this will be the perfect size hoop.
- To hoop the jacket back you’ll need adhesive backed stabilizer to hold the jacket in place. A denim jacket is very stable so you shouldn’t need any additional stabilizer. Steps for hooping stabilizer are as follows:
- Cut a piece to fit within the hoop. Tightly hoop with the shiny side of the paper facing up.
- Use a pin to lightly score the paper making an “X.”
- Pull away the paper to expose the sticky side. See all steps in Figure #2a – #2c.
Tip: Adhesive backed wash-away stabilizer is temporary and washes out completely when you follow the directions on the package. This product is ideal for items that are difficult to hoop in the traditional manner. Keep in mind the fact that this stabilizer does not add any permanent stability. For items that require permanent stabilizer you would apply the permanent stabilizer directly to the wrong side of the garment, and then use the method shown here to secure fabric for embroidering on the adhesive.
- Mark the center of the jacket back on the wrong side of the jacket.
- Place the hoop on top of the gridded mat, lining up the center markings indicated on the hoop with grid markings on the surface below.
- To hoop the jacket begin by folding the jacket in half to expose the center marking. Align the center marking of the jacket with the center line on the grid below the hoop. See Figure #3.
Red arrows and dashed lines indicate center line in the photo below.
- Smooth the jacket back so it is thoroughly attached to the stabilizer.
- Embroider one or more motifs as desired, centering designs to fit on the back panel of the jacket.
- Pull away, and then trim as much of the stabilizer as possible to make washing easier. See Figure #4a and #4b.
Tip: I like to keep my hand under the stabilizer and lift it slightly to keep scissors away from garment.
- For optional couching set up machine for couching as directed in the included instructions. Insert the size 16 jeans needle and use a slightly longer zigzag length to accommodate the added thickness. Couch yarn along the seams surrounding the embroidered area to accent the design and tie the color scheme together. See below:
- To finish ends thread yarn and needle thread into a large eyed needle. Feed to the back side. Tie yarn and thread into a knot and then apply a small amount of seam sealant to the ends. Clip excess yarn and thread when dry. See Figure #5.
Additional ideas:
- Add iron on crystals or other embellishments to accent the embroidery on your jacket.
- There are many designs that coordinate with this free design, including a variety that fit smaller hoop sizes. Visit the Heirloom in Blue design category found on the Brother iBroidery.com design download site.
Consider adding a coordinating small motif to the front yoke.
Nice design and great instructions! Thanks!
Thanks for writing Linda! I’m so glad you liked the jean jacket project. Happy stitching!
How/where do I get the free design that is/was used for this jacket>
Hi Evelyn,
If you look at the instructions, just above the first image of the dove embroidery design you will see the name of the design in the form of a hyperlink. Just go ahead and click on it to download the design to your computer. You’ll also find the design on the home page of the Brother design download site, http://www.broidery.com.
Enjoy!
I have brother DZ820E.. where is the mirror image on it?
look in your editing functions (might be titled “layout”) for an icon that looks like a tall right triangle. That is the button I use on my 1250D for mirror imaging. You just push it and it will flip the image. The mirror image will not work with Disney licensed designs that you might get from ibroidery.com.
Hi Cheryl,
On your Brother embroidery machine you will follow this path to mirror image a design:
Select design
Touch Adjust
Touch Layout to go to Layout screen> You’ll see what looks like two triangular shapes facing one another. This is your mirror image key.
Enjoy!
Thank you
You are quite welcome Cindy!!!
I hope you have fun stitching this design 🙂
Very nice but, a pity it isn’t in colour!!!
Hi Dawn,
I know it looks like the image is in a black and white photo form but that’s because I stitched on a grey jacket and used tone on tone for the color scheme. The original Brother embroidery design is in blue and white and is very pretty but I wanted to match my grey jacket. Have fun stitching your own favorite color combinations and thanks so much for writing!
MERCI POUR CE TUTORIEL , CES BONNES IDÉES ET LES MOTIFS ;
“Avec plaisir” Thank you for writing Marie!
I love this….thank you so much for sharing this wonderful tutorial.
Thank you Joyce! Your input and comments are much appreciated. Enjoy!!!
So cute!
Thanks for taking the time to comment Mary! Happy Stitching!
How do I move the free design into the embroidery machine? New to this! Thanks!
Hi Juliet, the answer to your question depends on your machine model. There are several ways, included transfer to USB media and transfer via USB cable, an SD card, and even wireless transfer. There are many Brother machine models with different capabilities for importing a design. Can you tell us what machine you have so we can help further?
I can not find where o get the pattern at.
Hi Nona,
Look for this file name – FD_September 2017_Dove with Flowers.pes – right above the image, after the bullet list.
Hope this helps!
Let us know if you were able to locate and downlaod the design Nona 🙂
I’m also looking forward to this series!
Thanks for taking the time to write! Each month you will see a new project with a featured design. Enjoy!
I did not see where you hooped the jacket. did you just use the stabilizer sticky to hold it?
Hi Margaret, thanks for your question. You are correct, the adhesive backed water soluble stabilizer is hooped, the protective paper is peeled away, and then the jacket back is layered over the top and held in place by the sticky surface.
Two more important notes – First, the jean jacket is a very firm stable fabric so I was able to stitch the dove design without adding any additional stabilizer. Other fabrics may need stabilizer attached before they are “stuck” to the adhesive. Second, You’ll see that I marked the wrong side of the jacket for alignment in the hoop, using grid lines from the cutting mat underneath to achieve perfect placement.
is there any way to still get this design I thought I had it but I only printed out the instructions.
Hi Lynn,
Right below the bulleted list is the Free Design PES file for you to download (FD_September 2017_Dove with Flowers.pes). Simply click on that link and the file will download to your computer.
Hope this helps!
Happy Sewing!
Hi Lynn,
I hope you enjoy stitching the pretty dove design. Be sure to let us know if you need any more help 🙂
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