Looking to make adorable patriotic shirts for this year’s upcoming holidays? Use our free pattern and step-by-step tutorial to make our USA reverse applique embroidery pattern! Simple, beginner-friendly steps that will have you and your family decked out in red, white, and blue!
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We love celebrating the 4th of July here at the Harp household! Our oldest shares his birthday with America, so naturally, we are now the hosts for an annual 4th of July party!
Our crew has always coordinated in some sort of red, white, and blue combination, but this year, I decided to make matching shirts for the kids!
Now that I have seen the finished product…I will definitely be making one for myself!
This project is so simple, and I created a free pattern so you can make the exact same shirt at home.
Let’s start with the materials needed for this project!
Materials
- Shirts in various sizes (I linked suggestions, but shop your closet or local craft store first!)
- Fabric for backside – I found a pack of red, white, and blue patterned fabric at my local fabric store, however, look around your house first, you may have some fabric to use!
- Sewing needles
- Embroidery hoop
- Sharp embroidery scissors
- Water Soluble Embroidery Printable Paper
- Fusible Interfacing
- T-shirt Ruler
- My free pattern!
How to Make USA Reverse Applique Embroidery
- First, cut the fabric for the backside* of your shirts. You will want this piece to be larger than your hoop.
- Cut the fusible interfacing just smaller than your backside fabric, then iron according to directions.
- Use alphabet stencils, or my free pattern to trace your design onto your shirt.*
- Adjust hoop to pattern. The backside fabric should be directly under the pattern, and larger than your hoop.
- Next, use a backstitch to stitch around your letters.
- Once you stitch all letters, use your sharp embroidery scissors to carefully cut away the top shirt’s fabric and reveal your backside fabric below. Be careful not to cut into the fabric underneath.
And that’s it! Such a simple way to create adorable patriot shirts for you and your family!
Notes:
What kind of fabric can I use for the backside of my shirt?
You can use most materials on the backside of a reverse applique project. Cotton is the easiest.
Look through your closet to see if you have any old shirts that would work for this project! We upcycled previous patriotic shirts that had stains, tears, etc.
How do I trace a pattern onto my t-shirt project?
One easy way to trace your pattern onto your shirt, is to place it behind the shirt, hold it up to a light (or window!) and trace.
For daker shirts, I highly recommend using Water Soluble Embroidery Printable Paper. You simple print onto the soluble paper, peel & stick to your project, then wash away with water when you’re done stitching!
If you made these fun USA reverse applique shirts, I would love to see your work over on Instagram!
I also share all of my content through my Pinterest page, and would love to have you as part of the Home Sweet Harps community!
