Embroider patches with your Janome MC 9850
Embroidering patches with your Janome Memory Craft 9850 is easy after you watch me make all the mistakes.
I include tips on what stabilizer works and how to use a Cricut to cut out the patch fabric before embroidering. I also talk about how to use the guide files that I provide combined with embroidery designs that are built into your 9850.
I If you do not have digitizing software and just need the border stitches for circle patches, download them for free!
I am providing 3 files each for 4 different circle patch sizes.
- 2.5 Inches
- 3 Inches
- 3.5 Inches
- 4 inches
There are 3 files for each patch size:
- Segment 1 – stitch guide circle to stabilizer
- Segment 2 – Tack down foundation fabric to embroider upon
- Segment 3 – Satin border can be applied before or after embroidery design, repeat if necessary
Method
- Download the three .jef files inside a .zip file
- Unzip the patch-guides.zip file.
- Save the files to the EMB/Embf folder of your prepared USB Stick. Refer to a previous post to learn how to prepare the USB stick.
- Plug USB stick into your Janome MC 9850.
- Place tear away or water soluble stabilizer in the hoop.
Let's talk stabilizer
I use water soluble stabilizer to achieve that nice merrow edge around the patch. But I am found that I need to double it up to withstand all the stitching going on it.
If I do not want a perfect merrow edge and I embroider on a fabric that doesn’t fray, I use tear away stabilizer.
If you watched the video you could see I was totally figuring it all out. The cotton duck fabric was a fraying nightmare but the felt was easy peasy.
Combine downloaded files with the embroidery design.
- At your machine, go into embroidery mode and attach the embroidery unit.
- Change the foot pressure/height dial to #3.
- Select thread for bobbin and top thread colors.
- Touch the “new design icon”
- Touch the usb stick icon and the Embf folder where you saved the guide, tack and border files.
- Select the file with “guide” in the name.
- Touch the folder icon again and the Embf folder and select the file with “tack” in the name.
- Touch the home icon and then the designs icon with the sunflower on it.
- Scroll with the red arrows until you see the #27 martini glass and select it
- To add lettering while still in edit mode touch the home icon and then the Monogram option and peck out your letters.
- Position the letters and designs inside the circles as you like.
- Touch the folder icon again and the Embf folder and select the file with “border” in the name.
Start Stitching
When you are ready to sew the guide should stitch first and the machine will stop.
Yes that is a paper towel I used for stabilizer.
Place the foundation fabric on top of the guide. The trickiest part was getting the foundation fabric to stay put to get tacked down. If I used tear away stabilizer I found I could use heat n bond iron on adhesive worked the best and I could use my Cricut to cut the right size circle.
I tried cutting the circle before this step or after the tack down step. I think after is less risk of missing the edge if it isn’t positioned perfectly.
I like to use either a fabric glue stick or heat n bond to secure the fabric to the stabilizer. Look at my cute little iron.
The machine should be on the next step to tack down the foundation fabric. Start that step and the machine will stop.
If you decided to cut the fabric after tack down, go ahead and do that now. Cut as close as safely possible without cutting through the tack down stitching. The closer you cut the better it will look after the satin stitch.
Merrily stitch out the rest of the design colors and the satin stitch around the edge should be the last segment to stitch. I have found it looks best if I stitch it twice.
Now trim up the jump threads and any fabric peaking out around the edge but be carful not to cut the satin stitches or it will all unravel.
Use a bit of fray check if you see anything fishy!
I tried some kids name patches using my little FA10a free Arm hoop. I used felt as the foundation and I loved it. So easy and no fraying!
Here are some other supplies I use. I participate in the Amazon Associate program and if you buy something it doesn’t cost you more , but I earn a 2% commission. Which I use to buy more of …guess what…FABRIC!
Hi Shelly,
I am trying to make patches with square and odd shaped borders. How did you make your borders? Would you be willing to make a youtube video of the process to make borders? Thank you
I use free software that has the ability to convert graphics to embroidery stitches. It is called Inkscape and there is a plug-in called Inkstitch. If you are computer savvy, it is a good option. However, there are other embroidery software applications that are much easier to use but some are quite expensive. To make the square, I would do it just like I did for the circle. I would draw the square and then convert it to a path and then convert that to a satin stitch. If you let me know what size you would like, I can add that for you.
Hi Shelly,
I’m trying to make 3 rectangular 1.25″ tall name patches with an ordinary rectangular border, I downloaded Inkscape but I can’t seem to get the dimensions right. The font should be 1/2 inch tall so I used 36pt Arial but it doesn’t look quite right on my monitor. I’m using a Janome MemoryCraft 11000, would you be able to offer any tips?