MEGA SALE! Save 60% on 1000s of In-the-Hoop Designs

Save Now

How to Make an Embroidered Faux Leather Tray

An faux leather tray embroidered with the American flag

This pattern for a machine embroidered faux leather catch-all tray is easy to construct, and perfect for a variety of functions around the house. Use it as a dice tray for your favorite role playing game, or place it on an entry table to catch wallets, keys, and more. Follow along with the tutorial below and learn how to make your own.

Supplies & Materials:

Project Supplies
-Faux leather fabric
-Medium cut away stabilizer
-Temporary spray adhesive
-Embroidery thread
-5/8" heavy duty snaps

Tools

- Air erase or leather marking pen

- Ruler or straight edge

- Scissors

Print a pattern using the downloadable PDF for the size of tray you want. If the pattern is larger than a piece of printer paper, line up the pattern pieces using the registration marks and secure the pieces together with a piece of tape.

After joining the pattern pieces, trace the pattern with an air erase pen on the wrong side of your material. We are using faux leather in this tutorial. Repeat this twice. One piece will be the top of the catch-all tray; the other will be the bottom layer of the catch-all.

The downloadable PDF, along with traced outlines on two faux leather pieces

Cut the two pieces of your material for the tray.

Two pieces of cut faux leather

Use the air-erase or leather marking pen to transfer the snap placement dots from the pattern to one of the tray pieces.

A air-erase or leather marking pen using the downloadable PDF on top of a faux leather piece marking holes through the paper

Print a template of the design using embroidery software. If you do not have embroidery software, you can also cut a piece of plain paper to the dimensions of your design, then draw a vertical and horizontal line through the center point.

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, learn more about affiliate links here )

A cut piece of faux leather with crosshairs on it next to a print out of an American flag embroidery design template

Repeat the previous step (or your previous measurements) and your template to draw crosshairs on the stabilizer using a ruler and an air-erase pen.

A stabilizer with crosshairs drawn on it, an air-erase pen, and a ruler

Hoop the stabilizer with the crosshairs centered.

A hooped stabilizer with crosshairs drawn on it

Use temporary spray adhesive to adhere the faux leather to the hooped stabilizer. Be sure that your crosshairs are lined up.

A piece of faux leather with drawn crosshairs on it on top of and lined up with a hooped piece of stabilizer with crosshairs on it

Center the needle on the crosshairs and begin to sew out the design.

An american flag being embroidered on faux leather

If using multiple colors, continue to follow the color change sheet to embroider the rest of the design.


The second color of an american flag being embroidered on faux leather

After sewing, remove from the hoop and cut away the stabilizer from the bottom of the tray.

Scissors cutting the stabilizer closely from the back of an embroidery design

Use temporary spray adhesive to adhere the front and back tray pieces together.

A hand lifting the top of two layers of faux leather

Use a straight stitch and thread matching your material along all four edges of the tray to join the back and front tray pieces.

A close up on the straight stitched seam on the edge of the tray

Trim the edges of the catch-all tray so that they lay evenly together.

A top down image of the tray, its edges trimmed

Install the snaps on each of the four corners of the tray. Follow instructions specific to the manufacturer that you choose for your hardware. For this project, we use Dritz 5/8" heavy duty snaps.

A close up on the snaps, added to the corner of the tray

Snap the edges together and your catch-all tray is complete.

An image of the finished tray