Wedding Dress Patterns

Back to List

De-glam an evening gown

How to Embroider the Hem of Your Favorite Yoga Pants

August 16th, 2008 in patterns & designs, fashion, restyle, embroidery

Jennifer Stern, contributor

no recommendations

Here are my yoga pants with embroidery around the hems.

A close-up of the embroidery on one hem.

Here are my yoga pants with embroidery around the hems.

Photo: jen stern

Add Comment

Email to a Friend
Print

Last year I taught a yoga pants class, using Kwik Sew Pattern #3115 and special high-tech fabric that I ordered from Rose City Textiles in Portland, Oregon. They were so quick and easy to serge together, I made several pairs of these comfortable pants. A year later, they’re still my favorite…I’ve worn them everywhere, from trail running to a quick trip to the grocery store. Recently I’ve discovered yoga, and of course I wear them there, too! At the time I taught the class, it had not occurred to me to embroider on them. One day a few weeks ago in power yoga class, I saw some black yoga pants with delicately embroidered hems. I thought to myself, "That little amount of embroidery is just what my yoga pants need!"

Let me show you how to add embroidery to the hem of your favorite yoga pants. If you need a new favorite pair, I love the Kwik Sew pattern I mentioned above—they really do sew together quickly. I also recommend that you check out the moisture-wicking fabric available at Rose City Textiles if you don’t have any on hand.

If you choose an embroidery design that’s lightweight and combine it with the right stabilizer and needle, embroidering on these high-tech fabrics is a snap. The choice in design is most important—if you pick one that’s too dense, it will pucker the fabric. Dense or heavily filled designs also require a lot of stabilizer; this will change the hand of the stretch fabric too much, and the result won’t be worth the effort.

I have a collection of outline butterflies that are perfect. Because these designs do not have any fill stitches, I can use a wash-away stabilizer without worrying about the fabric stretching and distorting after the stabilizer is removed. Combined with a size 14 stretch needle, I will have no trouble embroidering the hem of my favorite yoga pants.

What You'll Need:

A pair of yoga pants to embroider (Wide-leg or pants with some flare at the hem are much easier to embroider because of the extra wiggle room.)
Lightweight embroidery designs of your choice
Embroidery thread contrasting the color of your yoga pants
Wash-away stabilizer such as Aqua Mesh from OESD
Size 14 stretch needles
505 temporary adhesive spray

Let’s get started. If you have embroidery software, you can print a real-size template to reduce hoopings and help you get perfect placement. If you are working with premade yoga pants, you can take out the inseam with a seam ripper to make it easier to embroider. If you are making your yoga pants, put the legs together, sewing just the side seam. Do all your embroidery while the hem is flat, then sew the inseam. I am going to leave my seams intact and embroider the hem inside out, one motif at a time.

Using chalk, lightly mark a placement line around the hem of one of the legs approximately 2 inches from the edge. Turn the pants inside out and use the 505 temporary adhesive spray to adhere a piece of wash-away stabilizer behind the area of the hem that will first be embroidered.

You can adjust the position of this line if you want your embroidery closer to the edge.

Hoop another piece of wash-away stabilizer. Draw cross hairs directly on the stabilizer to make it easier to position the hem of the yoga pants in the hoop.

Here's what Aqua Mesh wash-away stabilizer looks like. It works better than the clear variety because it doesn't stretch or become perforated by the needle holes.

Because you are embroidering close to the edge, you'll be able to see the guidelines on the stabilizer when the hem is adhered into the hoop.

Turn the leg inside out and use the guidelines to position the hem into the hoop. We will start with the center front position and work out in either direction from there.

By turning the leg inside out, you can easily see if the hem is going to get caught under the needle—before it happens!

Import the embroidery design(s) into your embroidery machine. Wind a bobbin with black bobbin thread for dark-colored fabrics or white bobbin thread for light-colored fabrics. Put a fresh size 14 stretch needle into your machine and thread with the color you will be embroidering with. If you have a baste-in-the-hoop feature, get into the habit of using it. Not only does it hold the fabric to the stabilizer, but it also gives you a good indication if everything is positioned straight. Stitch the design.

It is easy to see that the design is going to stitch evenly with the edge of the hem.

Remove the hoop from the machine, then carefully trim around the stitched embroidery from the bottom side of the hoop without removing the stabilizer from the hoop. Use a piece of stabilizer to “patch” the hole you made. In addition to saving money, you can use the “hole” as a placement guide when you are positioning the hem in the hoop for the next embroidery.

Trim as close to the stitching as you can.

Here is the "hole" after the embroidery is removed from the hoop.

Position a piece of wash-away stabilizer over the hole. Spray the hoop again with temporary adhesive to get it ready to position the hem into the hoop to embroider the next motif.

The next embroidery will stitch right over the patched hole.

If you don’t have embroidery software to print out a template, measure the embroidery you stitched and compare it to the measurement of the hem. If you can easily space a whole number of additional embroidery motifs around the hem, then, great, stitch on! If you will run short of space, figure out how much you have to space the designs to stitch them evenly around the hem. My butterfly design fit evenly around the hem—three motifs on the front and three on the back.

Use the patched hole as a guide to hoop each design as you work around the hem.

When you have completed embroidering around the entire hem, do the other leg! While the second leg is stitching, you can use a pair of small embroidery scissors to trim away any large patches of stabilizer from the wrong side of the pants.

After you have completed all the embroidery, all you have to do to completely remove all the stabilizer is to throw the pants in the wash! Your new fancy pants will look great in yoga class or on that quick run to the grocery store!

Did you make this?
After you make this project, show off your work to other members!
Post your project in the gallery

posted in: patterns & designs, fashion, restyle, embroidery

Add Comment Email to a Friend

Comments (2)

JenniferStern writes: Thanks! Posted: 9:09 pm on August 16th

Patzee writes: I like your tip showing how to simply add a small piece of stabilizer rather than do a complete rehooping. Thanks! Posted: 7:02 pm on August 16th

You must be logged in to post comments. Click here to login.