Fabrics 101: Embroidering on Pashmina

Pashmina scarves and wraps are gorgeous additions to any wardrobe. They're also soft and loosely woven, which makes them one of the trickiest types of fabric to embroider onto. Learn our top tips and tricks for embroidering on this delicate fabric to add a custom look to your closet.

Project Needs & Notes:

- Pashmina
- Heavy-weight water-soluble stabilizer
  (Sulky Ultra Solvy)
- Air-erase pen for marking

Designs featured in this tutorial include:

L4360, Juncos in Bloom Border (Toile)
F6347, Baroque Owl
X6920 and X6921, Light and Lovely Leaves
X5934, X5935, and X5936, Light and Lovely Snowflakes

Pashmina is a delicate fabric, so light and open designs will work best. Heavy designs will cause the fabric to drape poorly, and pucker.

Choose designs like toile, or vintage stitch, for best results.

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.

Then, arrange the template on the pashmina. In this example, I'm arranging a border design so it's on the fringed edge of the scarf.

Mark the center point as well as the vertical and horizontal axis lines.

Gently hoop the pashmina between two pieces of heavy-weight water-soluble stabilizer.

Line up the marks on the pashmina with the marks on the hoop.

It's very delicate fabric, so make sure the fibers aren't stretched or skewed.

Attach the hoop to the machine and load the design. Move the hoop so the needle is right over the center point.

Embroider the design. A 75/11 or size 11 embroidery needle is a fine choice.

After the design has finished, unhoop the pashmina and gently trim as much of the water-soluble stabilizer away as possible.

Launder or soak to remove the rest. Check the pashmina label for laundering information.

Because the toile design is very light, the fabric drapes beautifully.

It's fun to try different placement ideas on pashminas. In this example the design is stitched on the shoulder. When the pashmina is wrapped around you, the design shows.

This blue pashmina has sparkling snowflakes scattered all around. I used metallic thread on this one.

Master embroidering on pashmina scarves and wraps with these tips and tricks! It's a gorgeous way to add embroidery to your wardrobe.