How to Embroider a Sweater: Easy Botanical Sweater Sleeve

Preparation

Cut a square of iron-on interfacing measuring roughly 12cm by 12cm. 

You will be stitching the right sleeve near the cuff on the opposite side to the seam. Turn your sweater inside out and iron the interfacing on to the back of this area.

The interfacing will make it easier to stitch on the stretchy fabric of the sweater.

Now turn your sweater right side out.

Now cut out the two leaf designs shown from your sheet of transfers and follow the pack instructions to iron the transfer on to the sleeve of your sweater. 

Iron your fabric first so it is warm when you apply the transfer. 

Position the transfers as shown in the photo, slightly over laid and with the leaves pointing down towards the cuff.

Now mount the sweater sleeve in to you embroidery hoop, you will need to slide the smaller inner ring of the hoop inside the sleeve. 

Make sure the fabric is tight and the screw if secure. You will not fit the whole design in the hoop, so complete the part you can see and then move your hoop to complete the design.

If you are not sure how to set up your hoop you can find a full guide here or watch the video at the top of this page.

Now you are ready to start stitching!

Step two:

Now stitch the leaves along the stem using leaf stitch.

This time you will be stitching with 3 strands of mint green thread thread. 

You can see exactly how to complete each leaf in the video below..

Step three:

Next cut an arm's length of the pink thread and separate 4 of the six strands by untwisting the thread.

Thread your needle with the 4 strands and tie a knot in the other end.

Now begin to stitch the at base of the larger leafs stem you will be using split stitch, as before, to embroider the other stem stem.  

Continue stitching until you have covered the entire stem with split stitch.

Step four:

The final set of leaves are stitched using lazy daisy stitch.

Use 3 strands of bright green thread and place a single lazy daisy stitch over each of the leaves.

You can see the steps for lazy daisy stitch below or click here for a full guide.

After placing each lazy daisy stitch make another simple stitch inside the leaf you have just created. This stitch will fill the leaf out a little bit and make sure none of the sweater shows through.

Continue until you have covered all of the leaves in this way.

Step five:

Once you have completed all the stems and leaves remove the hoop and turn your sweater inside out. 

Tidy up any loose ends by trimming away the excess threads with scissors. 

Finally trim away and excess interfacing, as shown in the photo, and you are all done!