Hello crafters!

Today I am going to show you how to make your own iron-on patches from a few simple supplies. Making your own patches opens the door for so much creativity! Literally any topic that you can think of can be turned into a cute patch 🙂

Supplies you will need for DIY Iron-on patches

• Heat and Bond
• water soluble stabilizer (optional)
• material to embroider on (any material will work but I find a tight weave, low stretch fabric to be the easiest to use)
• iron
• embroidery thread and needle
• embroidery hoop
• scissors

Starting your embroidery

First you need to decide what image you would like to embroider, if you would like to use the smiley face template that I used in this tutorial you can find a free pdf download image over on the members page!

I like to use water soluble stabilizer to draw out my designs for a few reasons but if you prefer to just draw the image straight onto the fabric that is perfectly fine.

Benefits to using stabilizer:

• you can trace images through the stabilizer
• dissolves away (along with your pen marks) when you are done sewing
• prevents wasting fabric if you make a mistake with your drawing
• helps hold the fabric in place so that it doesn’t stretch while sewing

Now get to sewing! If you are using my smiley template I used the following stitches:

• Pink flowers – daisy stitch
• Black smiley outline and detail – backstitch
• Yellow outer circle – backstitch
• Green and blue dots – french knot

Cutting out your patch

You can cut your patch out as close to the edge as you would like, as long as you don’t catch any of the stitches. You will be sealing the edges later so you don’t need to worry too much about fraying.

Applying the iron-on backing

Cut out a piece of heat and bond to fit the back of your iron-on patch. Place the glue side against your patch and iron for 30 seconds.

The back of your patch will look like this once you peel the backing off. Now it is up to you; if you would like to leave it like this that is fine! If you are selling your patches and want them to have a cleaner look you can cover the back with more fabric.

To do this, put your patch face down and lay some extra fabric over it. Iron for 30 seconds to seal.

Now cut another piece of heat and bond to fit the back of your patch. Iron on for 30 seconds.

Finishing touches

Now that you have completed your iron-on patch you want to make sure it lasts. I like to leave the paper backing on the patch until I am ready to attach it to it’s new home to ensure that the backing remains sticky.

The very last step is to go around the edge of your patch with Fray Check. This step is very important if you want your patch to last. One little bottle of fray check with last you through tons of patches so it’s worth the investment!

I hope this tutorial has helped you out! I would love to see your creative patch ideas in the comments below 🙂 As always, leave your comments if you need any help or just want to say hi!

Happy crafting,