Fabrics 101: Embroidering on Straw Hats

A template, or printout of a design, is an excellent tool to help with placement.

Print a template of the design from your embroidery software. If you do not have embroidery software,We also recommend Wilcom's Hatch software which comes in different levels depending on what you'd like to use the software for. Hatch Organizer works well to view your designs, print dielines and templates, change design colors, and create basic design layouts. (This is an affiliate link. We may earn commission on purchases made with this link.)

Here the template is placed so the center point is centered between the edge of the brim and the crown of the hat. Mark the center point, as well as the vertical and horizontal axis lines.

Remove the paper template and draw lines connecting the marks.

Straw and synthetic straw is fairly sturdy, and this design is simple, so we'll use tear-away stabilizer first.

Use your largest hoop when embroidering on hats, as that will give a larger surface to lay the hat flatter.

Cut tear-away stabilizer a few inches larger than your largest hoop. Draw horizontal and vertical axis lines on the stabilizer.

Hoop the stabilizer, lining up the marks on the stabilizer with the marks on the hoop.

Spray the stabilizer with temporary adhesive. Place the hat on top, lining up the marks on the hat with the marks on the stabilizer and the hoop.

The crown of the hat needs to be flattened before embroidering, to avoid bumping into the machine.

Press the crown down and inward to ensure that the hoop has ample room to move. 

Load the design to the machine, and move the hoop so the needle is right over the center point. 

Embroider the design.

After embroidering, tear the excess stabilizer away from the back, and trim any loose stitches.

The design is light, with running stitches, and you can see that the ridges in the straw cause the stitches to jag back and forth a bit.

We tried to minimize this by using a water-soluble stabilizer as a topping, but there was no noticeable difference in the results.

Although the unevenness in the stitching is visible at a close-up view, it isn't visible from even a short distance away.

Light embroidery designs are a subtle addition to straw hats, and work reasonably well on the straw texture. 

To make the underside of the brim look neater and cleaner, try water-soluble stabilizer.

In this example, Sulky Ultra Solvy (a heavy weight water-soluble stabilizer), and the D7125, Damask English Rose Corner are used.

Follow the same steps as before, but hoop Sulky Ultra Solvy instead of tear-away stabilizer. We also added a piece of water-soluble stabilizer to the top, too.

When using a water-soluble stabilizer on hats, don't soak the hat to remove the stabilizer. Instead, tear as much of it away as you can (use a tweezers or tip of scissors for the small areas), and then blot the rest away with a damp Q-tip or paper towel.

Keep in mind that synthetic straw hats are cheaply made. The dyes in the polyester-paper blend are likely to bleed when wet. 

Used as a topping, the water-soluble stabilizer helps to smooth out designs with satin stitches. While it made no noticeable difference in the running stitch design, it did improve results with the satin stitches in this design. 

Because these fashionable hats have big and floppy brims, the back side of the design will show. If you wish, you can wind a bobbin with the same thread that you're using in the top. That way the underside of the brim won't show the white bobbin stitching that you see in this photo.

The above examples demonstrate with synthetic straw. 

Natural fiber hats have a softer and smaller weave than the synthetic straw hat. Use the same technique with either water-soluble stabilizer or tear-away stabilizer on the back.

This hat has a heavier weave, and you'll note that the multi-colored straw creates a variegated effect. While the technique of using water-soluble stabilizer as a backing is the same, choose the designs carefully. 

You can see that the A8395, Hibiscus Circle (Redwork) design gets lost in the variegated straw.

A heavier design with satin stitches shows up very well against the multi-colored straw. 

The design shown here is D7124, Damask English Rose Corner.

 Applique designs also work very well. This type of applique design (Y3448, Cozy Country Flower (Crafty Cut Applique)) is light and airy, and a great choice for heavy-weave hats, as there are only a few simple stitches that sew directly onto the hat.

This natural fiber straw visor uses the same technique as with the hats (water-soluble stabilizer on the top, and as backing).

The design featured is D5178, Dashing Damask Flower. There's no crown, so I didn't need to flatten it. But I did tape vertical brim down to flatten it more. This is an optional step.

As well as embroidering directly onto a hat, you can also stitch onto organza, then glue that to the hat. 

Use polyester organza that is about the same shade as the hat. 

Hoop the organza with a piece of water-soluble stabilizer. Embroider the design. This example uses G4178, Acappella Border 2.

After embroidering, cut as much of the stabilizer away. Trim around the shape. Remove the remaining stabilizer by soaking in water.

Press with an iron on a low setting, and use a pressing cloth. 

Use an all-purpose permanent adhesive, like Elmer's Craft Bond Multi-Purpose Spray. Spray it on the back of the embroidery.

Press it in place.

Use fabric glue, like Beacon Adhesives Fabri-Tac, to reinforce the edges.

With just a bit of embroidery, your straw hat will be oh-so-fashionable, and functional, too.