In this tutorial, I am going to show you in 2 different ways how you can attach a patch to a denim jacket. I will show you both how to attach a patch by hand as well on how to attach a patch with a machine.
I got this denim jacket from Value Village around 2 years ago. I had been looking for a boxier denim jacket to add patches to for awhile. Then one day when I looked randomly through the large-section I found the perfect one. However, it is not a size large. The size label says size 16 inside but as it fits me perfectly I suspect it’s rather kids size 16.
I have since then attached several patches to my denim jacket. All the patches are made by my friend Jess De Wahls. The first patch from her I got when I supported her Kickstarter-campaign in 2015.
Then I got the Clitoria Ternatea in blue, red, and pink, from her latest Kickstarter-campaign, and I bought the Venus Fly Trap-ovaries on the back from her online shop. If you’re interested in getting any of these patches you can buy them here.
I also have these lovely knitting & sewing themed pins from Crafty Pinup, and I will link to her online shop as well if you’re interested in getting the same ones as me. Abby also has the same designs as my pins as patches.
My plan going forward with this jacket is that I will embroider my own designs onto it to add my own little touch. I’m also going to change out the buttons and I will share the process with you in upcoming video tutorials.
Do you need to stitch iron on patches?
All these patches, with one exception, were iron-on on patches. However, I decided to still stitch them to my jacket. My advice for you is that even if you have an iron-on patch that you should make sure that your patch is attached securely by stitching it onto your garment.
In the video above I am showing you what happened to some of my patches when I had not yet stitched them onto my garment. Parts of the patches started to slowly loosen up at the edges after a while and his happened especially on the patches on my sleeves where they could not lay flat. As I would not want to risk to lose my patches when I am out and about I decided the best route was to attach them all by stitching them to my denim jacket.
When should attach a patch by hand or machine?
As I mentioned earlier I going to show you two different ways on how to attach a patch. If you go for attaching your patch by hand or by machine totally depends on a few factors including the placement on the garment, as well as the design of the patch – can your machine easily reach and stitch your patch in place? Does the patch have a very intricate design or not?
Sometimes you might want to even combine both hand stitching and machine stitching on the very same patch.
For example, on one of my patches, I attached the flower petals by machine but then I decided to attach the more intricate leaf design by hand. I didn’t mind having a more ‘framed’ stitch around the flower petals, however, on the leaves, I wanted a neat and fine finish.
Another factor is of course how quickly you would prefer to attach the patch. Stitching your patch with a sewing machine is, of course, preferable if you want to do it as quickly as possible.
If you want to create a more ‘framed’ look like which I did on the Venus Fly Trap-ovaries (which I confusingly called cacti-ovaries in the video 😅) on the back of my jacket you can create this easier with a sewing machine than what you would be able to do by hand. This is because stitching a patch by hand on materials like denim can be really hard and tiring on your hands and by attaching a patch by a machine you give your hands a bit of a break.
If I have a patch that I would like to attach to the front and the back of my jacket, for example, I can most of the time easily access these areas and attach it by machine. However, areas like the sleeves are a bit trickier to put inside a machine, and here you might want to attach the patch by hand.
One of my patches was also attached with both machine stitching, as well as hand stitching. I hand-stitched on parts of the patch because I wanted to attach that part to the pocket flap without accidentally stitching the pocket together. But then I stitched the remaining part of the patch attached to the outside of the pocket flap by machine.
So that’s the things to consider when we try to decide: Shall I hand stitch or should I use my machine?
How to attach a patch by machine
I will first show you how to attach a patch using a sewing machine. You will need to make sure you use the right needle for your project and as I’m attaching my patch to a denim jacket I will use denim sewing machine needles.
I’m going to stitch around the flower part using a blue matching thread. I did set my machine to stitch a zig-zag stitch with 1.5 mm in stitch width and 0.5 mm in stitch length.
I then did put my jacket and a patch under the machine and positioned them where I wanted to start stitching. Then I slowly stitched around and pivoted the patch and garment as I went. For best results, I made sure to stitch slightly over the edge but still mainly on the patch.
Once you’re done make sure to fasten the threads and take off your work from your machine. As you can see we have now stitched a pretty discreet stitch along the edge of the flower petals. Snip off any loose threads and now it’s time to hand stitch the leaves in place.
How to attach a patch by hand
To hand stitch the leaves I used:
- A matching thread – I used a green thread to match the leaves
- A thimble – you can either use a leather thimble, like me, or a metal thimble
- Embroidery needles
- Embroidery scissors
I started by threading the needle with double thread and tied the two ends together at the bottom. Before starting I made sure to put my thimble on because otherwise, you will end up with very sore hands… I’M NOT AT ALL speaking from experience here… 🤪😅
Pull the needle into the patch so that the knot is in between the garment and the patch. Then whip stitch through both the garment and your patch. Make sure not to create any knots or tangles.
I prevented creating too much tangling by having a shorter thread and then I fastened the thread as I went along rather than risk creating a lot of tangles with a longer piece of thread.
I’ve also heard that waxing your thread can prevent tangles as well. If you see any tangles that are about to occur try to untangle them as soon as possible to prevent messes and broken threads.
Stitching by hand can be very time-consuming and tiring for your hands so make sure to take regular breaks as you go!
Once I was done I fastened the threads by pulling the thread to the back and then I made three knots. After that, I pulled the thread through inside the previous stitches, and then I did cut off any excess threads.
Now the patch is securely attached both by hand as well as by machine! I’m sure there are loads of other ways how to attach a patch but this is the way I do it, and I really hope it helped you! 😊
Want to save it for later? Pin it!
Let me know in a comment below: Which patch is it that you’re attaching? And to what? I would love to hear because I do love some good ol’ patches and I am always keeping my eyes out for new fun patches!
