Fabrics 101: Embroidering on Balsa Wood

We find that templates are very helpful when positioning a design.

Templates are printouts of designs from embroidery software programs. A template will indicate the center of a design, as well as the horizontal and vertical axis lines.

Embird, Buzz Tools, and Wilcom TrueSizer are examples of embroidery programs that make templates.

Balsa wood is very porous so  use cutaway stabilizer on the backside. Spray a piece of cutaway stabilizer with temporary adhesive (we use Gunold's KK100) and smooth it on the backside of the wood.

Because balsa wood can't be hooped, we'll hoop a piece of tear-away stabilizer, and affix the Balsa wood to that.

Spray a piece of tear-away stabilizer with temporary adhesive and hoop it firmly.

Place the balsa wood (with the cutaway stabilizer on the backside) in the center of the hoop.

Since balsa wood is so porous, we use water-soluble stabilizer on top to prevent the stitches from sinking into the wood grain.

Use a 75/11 universal or embroidery needle, and embroider the design.

After the design has finished, gently tear the excess stabilizer away.

Remove the water-soluble topping also.

Use a damp brush or paper towel to remove any remaining water-soluble stabilizer from the top.

Use a rotary cutter to cut the balsa wood to the size and shape you would like.

And there you have it! Using Balsa wood you can make coasters, postcards, jewelry boxes, recipe card boxes, and even decorative trivets for the kitchen and dining room!