Small Projects: Embroidering & Hemming

When I returned from my two-week work trip, I had a couple of small and easy projects that required my assistance. One, my co-worker asked me if I could embroider numbers on thirteen youth baseball caps and three adult caps for the little league he coaches. Second, my husband just bought two new pairs of jeans that needed hemming. Sounds like manageable projects for me to complete. Hehe.

Baseball Caps

I was really excited about embroidering the numbers on the baseball caps since this gave me the opportunity to use my Husqvarna Viking small metal hoop. If you don’t know, the metal hoops that Husqvarna Viking make are super versatile and handy for embroidery projects, like this one I am doing!

The metal hoops come with four magnets that are used to hold down stabilizer and fabric still on the metal hoop. Makes it easier for odd shape items you are trying to embroider which can’t be easily done using a standard embroidery hoop.

My biggest struggle with embroidering numbers on the back of baseball caps was trying to align the caps perfectly on the hoop so it can stitch out numbers straight. Caps are stiff on the front so getting them to lay straight or not bunching up was difficult. Once I accomplished a few caps I was able to hoop them quicker.

 

In these pictures, most would probably think the stitch out location of this number is good, but for me, I had to redo this one since I figured it would look better closer to the middle seam.

I know I have said in past posts that I would try to be better at taking photos of my progress, well let’s say I am still epically failing at remembering to take pictures. Sorry. But, I did manage to snap a video of my embroidery machine stitching out the number 10 on one of the hats which you can see how I had to place the caps on the metal hoop. 🙂

 

When I had to embroider two numbers on the caps, it was even more challenging to make sure the numbers stitched out in the right spot. Luckily, the metal hoops have notches on the hoop to help me align easier plus it comes with a grid guide.

Easy peasy.

Hemming Jeans

My last little project was hemming my husband’s new pair of jeans. Unfortunately, my husband has a hard time finding jeans that can fit him lengthwise. He has to get jeans that are 40W, but shortest length we can find in stores are 30L, on rare occasions 28L (which I still have to hem a little). In his defense, he has a longer torso but shorter legs. I think he is happy I can hem his jeans for him. 😉

 

You can see in the pictures above; I rolled the jeans up to the length desired for my husband. I used a zipper foot to place the foot right next to the hemline and put the needle all the way to the left, this way we can keep the original jean hem. In the video below, you can see how I sewed next to the jean hem.

 

 

After I stitched next to the jean hemline, I used my serger machine to cut off the excess material/overlock stitched the edge. The overlock stitch will help prevent fraying, but if you don’t have a serger, you can cut off the excess and use a zig-zag stitch on your sewing machine to prevent fraying. Below is a picture of the serged edge on the jeans.

After I serged the edge, I flipped the hem and used an iron to press the hemline of the jeans so it won’t turn out. Note, sometimes when I wash my husband’s jeans, I usually have to push or iron down the hemline.

In the picture below, you can see how it looks when you hem jeans with the original hem.

Pretty awesome. From a distance, you would never know I hemmed the jeans, but when you take a closer look you can tell, but who is going to look close up to see your jeans hemline? Not many people? Anyways, my husband is a happy camper and is ready to wear his newly hemmed jeans. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!