Add some flair to your desktop with an embroidered mouse pad!
Mouse pads are easily customizable when you add your favorite embroidery designs and thread colors. They also make wonderful gifts!
Read below for these free project instructions.
Supplies & Materials:
Project Materials or Supplies
- Foam mouse pad (2mm thick or a bit less than 1/8 inch thick, without a hard plastic coating)
- Medium weight cutaway stabilizer
- Temporary spray adhesive
- Masking tape
The designs used in this tutorial include:
Important Project Notes:
It's important to choose a mouse pad that is made of soft foam and does not have a hard plastic top. Also, our mouse pad was about 2mm or about 1/8 inch thick.
We found our mouse pad at an office supply store (like Office Max or Office Depot).
Choose a design that has a medium to light stitch count (around 20,000 stitches or less with a some open areas and few solid stitched areas). Designs with large stitch counts tend to pucker and distort the mouse pad.
Gather Materials:
To begin, cut a piece of medium weight cutaway stabilizer a bit larger than your hoop. Then, using a straight edge, draw a crosshair in the center.
Create a paper template of the design by printing it at full size using embroidery software. If you don't have embroidery software, you can cut a piece of paper the shape and dimensions of the designs to help with placement and centering.
Position the template on the mouse pad where you want it. Then, lay strips of masking tape under the axis lines on the template. Poke a hole in the center of the template and mark the tape. Also, mark the horizontal and vertical axis points.
Remove the template and draw lines to connect the axis points.
Hoop the stabilizer tightly by aligning the marks on the hoop with the lines on the stabilizer. Then, generously spray the stabilizer with temporary adhesive.
Align the lines on the tape with the lines on the stabilizer and press the mouse pad in place.
Start Embroidering:
Attach the hoop to the machine and load the design. Move the hoop so that the needle is directly over the center point on the tape. Remove the tape and embroider the design. Avoid using metallic thread and white or very light colored thread - these types may cause optical mice to not perform properly.
After the design has finished, unhoop the stabilizer and trim away the excess on the back of the embroidery.
We noticed that after the stabilizer is trimmed away the mouse pad was just a bit warped. To correct this, you may press the mouse pad using a pressing cloth and an iron set on its lowest heat setting.
Your mouse pad is now complete!
