Embroidering on Jeans

Embellish jean pockets, pant legs, and more with the tips and tricks in this tutorial! Use this technique to give both kids' and adults' jeans an eye-catching update with beautiful embroidery.

Project Needs & Notes:

- Jeans
- Medium-weight (2.5 ounce) cutaway stabilizer
- Air erase pen for marking
- Temporary spray adhesive
- Heavy sewing thread (match color to thread color on outer seams)
- Heat set crystals (optional)
- Ruler

The designs featured in this tutorial include:
M14917, Wild West Blooms and Feathers Spray
M14887, Western Flair Pocket

First, prepare to embroider the bottom of one pant leg.

Using a seam ripper, open up the outer seam of one pant leg.

Make sure to rip open the pant leg from the bottom up to just above the knee

Lay the front half of the pant leg flat on the table with the right side of the fabric facing up.

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, Wilcom's TrueSizer is a free program to use.

Arrange the design where you would like it on the jeans.

Cut a piece of medium-weight cutaway stabilizer a bit larger than the hoop.

Spray it with temporary adhesive and smooth it on the wrong side of the fabric behind where the embroidery will sew.

Using a ruler and an air-erase pen, extend the vertical and horizontal axis lines on the fabric and stabilizer.

Hoop the jeans and stabilizer together, lining up the marks on the fabric with the marks on the hoop.

Some of the fabric may not be hooped, but the spray adhesive will help keep it affixed to the stabilizer while embroidering.

Attach the hoop onto the machine and load the design.

Move the hoop so that the needle is directly over the center point drawn on the fabric.

Embroider the design.

After embroidering, cut away the excess stabilizer from the back of the embroidery.

Leave about 1/2" of stabilizer around the design.

Turn the jeans inside out. To resew the pant leg, begin by pressing the side seams flat.

Align the side seams back together and pin in place.

Make sure the right sides are together and that the bottom edges and corners match up.

Then sew a seam following where the original seam was.

Zigzag stitch along the raw edge of the seam to keep it from fraying.

These inner raw edges can also be re-serged.

Finally, roll the bottom hem of the pants back up and top stitch it in place, matching your thread to the original thread color.

To embroider the back pocket of the jeans, use a seam ripper to completely remove the back pocket from the jeans.

Print a template of the design and arrange it on the pocket.

Using an air-erase pen, mark the center point along the vertical and horizontal axis lines.

Spray a piece of cutaway stabilizer bigger than the hoop, and smooth the pocket onto the center of the stabilizer piece.

Extend the vertical and horizontal axis lines onto the fabric and stabilizer to help with hooping.

Hoop the stabilizer tightly while lining up the axis lines with the marks on the hoop.

The pocket will be floating in the in the hoop, and the spray adhesive will hold it in place while embroidering.

Attach the hoop onto the machine and load the design.

Move the hoop so the needle is right over the center point on the pocket.

Embroider the design.

After embroidering, cut away the excess stabilizer from the back of the embroidery.

Carefully cut close to the edges of the design to make sure none of the stabilizer goes over the edge of the pocket.

Next, reattach the back pocket.

Place the pocket back into its original position.

Use heavy sewing thread to top stitch the pocket back into place.

Make sure to follow the paths of the old seams, and match the orignial thread colors.

Use heat-set crystals to add an extra layer of style to your jeans! Here they accentuate the swirls and twirls of this design.

Coordinate the designs on the pockets and the pant leg, or use a variety for a fashion-forward look!