Make greeting cards extra special when you make them yourself! These specialized designs combine machine embroidery and fabric applique that you can stitch directly onto cardstock to create one-of-a-kind greetings. Follow along to learn how to make your own!
Supplies & Materials:
- Heavy-weight cardstock, handmade paper, or watercolor paper
- Small pieces of fabric for applique
- Accent paper
- Medium-weight (2.5 ounce) cutaway stabilizer
- Temporary spray adhesive
- 75/11 sharp sewing machine needle
- Glue stick
- Scissors
- Pencil
Cardstock embroidery designs have been specially digitized to embroidered onto paper. Only use designs labeled as cardstock designs, or the embroidery may just cut the paper rather than sew onto it.
When selecting paper, choose a heavy-weight cardstock, handmade paper, or watercolor paper. When using paper with shorter fibers (such as cardstock) the needle perforations will be more visible around the embroidery, but it will still work well.
After the paper is chosen, fold it in half, and cut the card to the desired size. In this tutorial, the card will be 5" wide by 7" tall, so it will fit into a standard envelope size that is easy to find.
A template, or printout, of a design is an excellent tool to help with placement. Print a template of the embroidery design using an embroidery software. Arrange the template where you would like the design. Using a pencil, lightly mark the center point and the vertical and horizontal axis lines of the design. Make sure to mark the paper very lightly so it can be erased later.
We also recommend Wilcom's Hatch Organizer 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 a commission when you make a purchase using this link.)
When you download the design, you will find multiple files. Some are embroidery files, and others are dieline files marked with the letters "DL". Dielines are used to cut the fabric to the correct shape and size.
Open and print each dieline file using an embroidery software. If you do not have an embroidery software, take a look at our helpful video on using dielines.
To make the applique pieces, spray the wrong side of the paper dieline with temporary spray adhesive, and smooth it onto the right side of the fabric.
Cut out the dieline shape. Then remove the paper dieline.
Some applique cards have multiple pieces, repeat the previous steps until all applique pieces are cut out.
Hoop a piece of cutaway stabilizer. Make sure it is tight in the hoop, and that there are no wrinkles.
Locate the front half of the folded card that the embroidery will be sewing on. Spray the back side of that front half (from the edges of the paper to the fold) with temporary adhesive. Then press the sprayed side of the card onto the hooped stabilizer, lining up the axis marks on the card with the marks on the hoop.
Attach the hoop onto the machine and load the embroidery design. Move the hoop until the needle is directly over the drawn center point on the card. Using a sharp 75/11 needle will make the perforations in the paper smaller and will help prevent the embroidery from cutting up the paper.
Begin stitching the design. Watch the color change sheet closely and embroider until you have finished sewing the first step with “dieline” in its name.
The dieline (or outline) marks the area where the applique piece will be placed. After the dieline has sewn, remove the hoop from the machine, but do not unhoop the stabilizer.
Spray the wrong side of the first applique piece with temporary adhesive. Place the applique inside of the sewn dieline shape.
Place the hoop back on the machine, and embroider the tackdown for the applique piece that was just placed. A tackdown holds the fabric piece in place for the remainder of the design.
Keep following the color change sheet. Some designs have multiple applique pieces. Repeat the previous steps as needed until the design has finished stitching.
After the design is finished embroidering, unhoop the stabilizer, and trim away the excess stabilizer on the back. Also erase any visible pencil marks from earlier.
Cut a piece of accent paper to the same size as one half of the folded card (here it is cut to 5" wide by 7" tall). Use a glue stick to glue it into place on the backside of the embroidery. This will hide the back side of the embroidery and the stabilizer.
Create beautiful embroidered cards with applique details to send love and well wishes to family and friends!
