How to Make an In-the-Hoop Highland Cow Plush

Make yourself an in-the-hoop Highland cow plush that is as sweet as can be! He has horns made out of felt, a tail made out of yarn, and shaggy bangs made with faux fur. Follow along with the steps below and learn how to stitch this design in-the-hoop. Plus, at the end, we'll show you how to make the cow's tail!

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When you download the in-the-hoop Highland Cow design, you will find multiple files. Some are the embroidery files, and the 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 embroidery software. If you do not have embroidery software, take a look at our helpful video on using dielines without software. 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)

Spray the backside of the printed dieline pieces with temporary adhesive and smooth them onto the right side of the fabric.

Cut the dieline shapes out of the fabric and remove the paper. Use the dielines to cut out the stiff felt ears and horns, and the faux fur hair piece.

Hoop a piece of tear-away stabilizer firmly. Make sure it is nice and taut with no wrinkles.

Attach the hoop to the machine and load the embroidery file (not the dieline files).

Use a 75/11 sharp sewing needle instead of an embroidery needle. The sharp sewing needle has a finer point, and it will make smaller perforations in the stabilizer.

Embroider the design. The first thing to embroider will be the dieline (or outline stitch) for the front fabric piece. This marks the area on the stabilizer where the fabric 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 front fabric piece with temporary adhesive.

Smooth the front fabric piece onto the stabilizer inside of the sewn dieline.

To prevent the embroidery from sinking into the fluffy fabric, cut out a piece of light weight water-soluble stabilizer that is larger than the design (we used Sulky Solvy).

Lay it over the front fabric piece and tape the edges down onto the hoop or stabilizer around the design.

Place the hoop back onto the machine and embroider the tack down for the front fabric piece. The tack down will hold the fabric piece in place for the remainder of the design.

Then embroider the inner details of the design onto the front piece. Make sure the water-soluble stabilizer stays in place while sewing. Stop before sewing the "hair tack down" for the faux fur fabric piece.

Remove the hoop from the machine, but do not unhoop the design. Gently tear away the water-soluble stabilizer from the front of the piece.

Spray the back of the faux fur piece with the temporary spray adhesive, and then place it along the top part of the front fabric piece. 

Once the faux fur has been placed, add a piece of water-soluble stabilizer to the top of the fur, covering the top half of the front piece.

Then stitch the "hair tack down" color stop.

Continue stitching the next step, which will be the "ear, tail, and horn guidelines." These stitches show where to place each piece.

Next, remove the water-soluble stabilizer from the top of the faux fur. Then tape the ear, horn, and tail pieces down, aligning them with the guidelines. They will need to be placed so that the top of each piece faces the center of the design. The bottom edge of each piece should be placed along the outer edge of the front fabric piece so that the tack down border stitch will catch them and hold them in place. Doing so will ensure that once the finished design is turned right-side out, the horns, ears, and tail will all be placed correctly.

Smooth the back fabric piece on top of the front piece with right sides together. Make sure to line up the edges of the two fabric pieces carefully on the front of the hoop.

Adding pieces of tape to the edges and a layer of water-soluble stabilizer to the top of the fabric can be helpful to ensure everything stays in place and is held down. 

Place the hoop back onto the machine and embroider the back piece tack down. Given that there will be lots of fabric layers to stitch together, slowing down your machine may be helpful for this tack down step. This will adhere the front and back pieces together. It will also leave a small opening along the bottom edge for turning.

After the embroidering is done, tear away the excess stabilizer from around the piece. Tear away the water-soluble stabilizer topper as well.

If desired, you can also rip off any large areas of stabilizer from the wrong side of the front piece where it is not sewn under the embroidery. Removing this extra stabilizer can help the shape turn and stuff nicely.

If desired, to help the shape of the design look nice once turned, you can clip the seams around the curved edges.

Then turn the design right side out through the small opening, and remove all the tape remaining that was holding down any felt or tail pieces. Remove the water-soluble stabilizer from above the faux fur as well.

Fill with stuffing (such as polyester fiberfill) through the opening left along the bottom edge of the design.

Finally, use a hand sewing needle and thread to sew the opening closed.

Your in-the-hoop Highland cow plush is now complete! Use him as an ornament, or give it as a cuddly gift for kids. 

Cut two short 10" pieces of yarn, and one 5' long piece of yarn.

Take the long piece of yarn and pinch the end between your thumb and fingers. 

Wrap the piece of yarn repeatedly over you fingers until you near the end of the string. This forms the main piece of the tassel. 

Take one of the 10” pieces of yarn and thread them through the loop on your fingers and pull through until both ends are about equal in length on either side of the tassel.

Tie the ends of the short piece of yarn in a double knot. Once tied, you can slip the tassel off of your fingers. 

Take the other 10” piece of yarn and place it horizontally on the table. Place the tassel on top of it so that the area with the knot is just above the horizontal piece of yarn. 

Tie the short piece of yarn around the tassel in a double knot.

Finally, cut the bottom loops of the tassel, and trim ends to be even. Your tassel is complete! It's now ready to be used with your in-the-hoop Highland Cow Plush.