Camp Shirt Embroidery Placement

Take an ordinary button-up shirt and turn it into an embroidered masterpiece!

In a few short steps, we will show you how to jazz up a shirt - avoiding puckering, preventing shifting, and hooping your garment properly for stellar results.

Read below for these free project instructions.

Supplies & Materials:

Project Materials or Supplies
- Shirt (we embroidered on a button-up camp shirt)
- Medium weight cutaway stabilizer
- Temporary spray adhesive
- Air-erase pen (or other marking tool)

The designs used in this tutorial include:

- D6227, Surfing Panel

Gather Materials:

To begin, we recommend that you wash and dry the garment before embroidering. This will pre-shrink the garment and ensure that the embroidery will not distort or pucker after the garment is laundered. We are embroidering on a rayon and polyester blend shirt. Cotton, linen, twill, and denim shirts will also work wonderfully.

Light beige checkered short-sleeve button-up shirt displayed on a mannequin with a neck cover, placed on a wooden surface in a corner room with light wallpaper.

To place the design, create a paper template of the design by printing it at full size. If you don't have embroidery software, you can cut a piece of paper the shape and dimensions of the design to help with placement and centering. Place the template on the shirt (we are placing the design on the left side of the front of the shirt). For adult sizes, place the template about 3 inches from the right edge of the design to the edge of the button placket and about 6 inches from the bottom edge of the design to the bottom edge of the shirt. If you are embroidering on a child size shirt, place the template about 2 inches from the right edge of the design to the edge of the button placket and about 4 1/2 inches from the bottom edge of the design to the bottom edge of the shirt. Also, remember that design placement is ultimately up to you.

Beige plaid shirt laid flat on table, with paper stencil showing palm trees, sun, island, and surfboard. Hand holds ruler measuring stencil placement.

Using an air-erase pen (or other marking tool), poke a hole in the center of the template and mark the fabric. Also, mark the horizontal and vertical axis points as well.

Hand holds a pen marking a pin on beige and white plaid camp shirt with a paper featuring a beach sketch of palm trees, sun, birds, and a surfboard.

Remove the template and draw lines to connect the axis points. These lines will be used for hooping - draw the lines as wide and high as your hoop.

Light beige plaid camp shirt laid flat on table with a metal ruler across front. A hand holds a blue marker above shirt, marking vertical lines for embroidery placement.

Cut a piece of medium weight (2 oz.) cutaway stabilizer a bit larger than your hoop. Spray the stabilizer with temporary adhesive and smooth it on the backside of the area to be embroidered. We are using Floriani No Show Mesh cutaway stabilizer. It's lightweight, which drapes well when used on a shirt, and it is sturdy enough to handle designs with high stitch counts.

Light beige camp shirt laid flat on a surface with the collar and part of the shoulder visible. A hand with a silver ring rests on the shirt. The fabric has a subtle grid pattern.

Start Embroidering:

Hoop the fabric and stabilizer together by aligning the marks on the hoop with the lines on the fabric. Since we are embroidering on a lightweight rayon/poly blend shirt, we made sure to hoop the shirt nice and tight. If the shirt is not hooped tightly, the fabric will surely shift and cause puckering and possibly cause areas of the design to not line up. If you are concerned about hoop-burn (marks left behind after the shirt is unhooped) you can simply launder the shirt or wet your fingertips with water and dab the marks. This will return the moisture to the shirt and the marks will disappear. To be sure that the hoop is tight enough, try hooping the shirt so that the hoop is snug. Then, turn the hand screw with your fingers, or carefully turn it with a screwdriver to fully tighten the hoop. Load the design and move the hoop so that the needle is directly over the center point on the fabric. Embroider the design.

Close-up of an embroidery machine stitching a colorful surfboard and palm tree design on beige checked camp shirt fabric held in an embroidery hoop.

After the design has finished, unhoop the shirt and carefully trim away the excess stabilizer on the back of the embroidery by first flipping the edges of the stabilizer up so that you can see the back of the stabilizer and then trimming it away. Doing this ensures that you will always see the garment thus you will not cut through it. Leave about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch of excess around the design - this will help support the embroidery through the life of the shirt. You may notice that the stabilizer makes the shirt somewhat stiff. The stabilizer will soften after the first wash and continue to soften with further washings allowing the shirt to drape nicely.

Hand holding orange-handled scissors cutting fabric with light green plaid and embroidery of palm trees and a sun on a light background.

And there you have it! A fantastic, fashionable, and fun shirt!

Man wearing a beige plaid short-sleeve camp shirt with embroidery of two palm trees, an island, a sun, and a surfboard on the left side near the waist against a blue background.

Embroider the design.

Close-up of a sewing machine needle stitching a textured blue arrow shape on a lighter blue fabric with a stabilizer underneath.

After embroidering, trim the excess cutaway stabilizer away from the back. Leave about 1/2" around the design.

Close-up of white fabric with a blue embroidered letter "A" framed by two blue squares, a hand holding scissors about to cut the fabric, all placed on a blue cloth surface.

Tear the excess water-soluble stabilizer away from the top of the towel. Use a damp sponge or tweezers to remove any small remaining pieces.

Once dry, your embossed machine embroidery project is ready to display!

Hand holding a transparent film with a peeled backing revealing a blue embroidered patch with a white letter "A" outlined in blue on a light blue fabric background.

Get Inspired:

There are so many ways to use embossed designs for machine embroidery.

Monogrammed towels make great gifts for showers, wedding and housewarming.

Blue towel with a large embroidered letter "A" inside a double-lined square border, surrounded by artificial flowers on a wooden surface.

Create beautiful bath decor with embossed machine embroidery. Create an entire matching set by using multiple sizes of the same design.

Pink towel with embroidered rose design in an ornate frame, placed on a white sink countertop near chrome faucet, a white jar, and a dropper bottle.

Experiment with variegated thread to create pattern and depth in the background stitching. We used Madeira variegated thread for these examples. Shop it here: <ink>

White towel with embroidery of a fluffy white lamb centered on a red plaid background with abstract leaf shapes around it, next to a glass vase with a pink and white flower.

High nap fabrics like faux fur and thick terrycloth can create even more textural effects and are particularly fun with animal machine embroidery designs.

A heavy water-soluble stabilizer topping is key to success when stitching embossed designs on high nap fabrics.