I've recently discovered the joys of machine embroidery.

I've been embroidering on everything—bags, clothes, home decor, you name it.

I was a bit wary of using my Brother Innov-ís NS1750D to embroider on knit fabric, mainly because I was concerned about the fabric stretching or puckering. But it wasn't as complicated as I thought!

I sew primarily with knit for my kids, so I'm excited that I've figured this out.

Today, I'm sharing eight tips for embroidery on knit fabric.

Of course, these tips aren't foolproof and may not apply to your situation. Plus, it would help if you still practiced before using your final fabric.

I hope these tips get you started on the right foot!

1. Keep the design “airy”

Choose airy, open embroidery designs. Dense designs are too heavy for the fabric and produce a patch-like effect.

While thicker garments, such as jeans jackets or backpacks, can support dense embroidery stitches, knits are often much more lightweight.

A crowded design with many satin stitches can actually weigh the fabric down or reduce the inherent stretch of the knit fabric.

For the best results, beginners should select more open embroidery designs like lettering or simple line work.

2. Use dense fabric

Choose a more stable and dense knit fabric like double knit or interlock.

Knits come in a variety of thicknesses, materials, and styles.

Super-thin knits aren’t a good candidate for embroidery because the necessary number of stitches in a concentrated area can compromise the fabric’s stability.

Thinner fabrics are also more prone to losing shape in embroidery.

The denser your knit fabric, the more successful your embroidery projects will be.

3. Wash your fabric!

If you are embroidering on the fabric you purchased, pre-wash it first.

Pre-washing is essential for two reasons.

First, you want any color bleeding to happen before you add your embroidery work.

The last thing you want is to create a beautiful embroidery design on a cardigan or shirt and then have fabric dyes bleed into your stitches, ruining your good work.

The other reason you should always pre-wash before your DIY embroidery projects is to ensure your knitted items won't stretch or shrink.

Size and shape changes in your garment will impact your embroidered design and detract from that professional machine-embroidery look. Pre-washing ensures a durable garment with lasting results.

4. Knit needles only

Use a knitting needle.

Yes, this may seem like common sense, but sometimes I forget to change my needle for embroidery.

If you're used to sewing woven fabrics, you may keep a sharp needle ready to go in your machine most of the time.

Needles for knits have a rounded, or ballpoint-style, tip so they won't make holes in the fabric.

These are great embroidery needles for knitwear because they push the fabric out of the way for each stitch rather than tearing through the material.

Whether you're doing freehand stitch patterns or using a dense embroidery template from your machine, you should use a knit-specific needle to protect the integrity of your fabric as you work.

5. Use a softer stabilizer

Use a cut-away stabilizer that doesn't stretch.

You could also use a water-soluble stabilizer.

Use a soft cut-away stabilizer that doesn't stretch in any direction to prevent knit fabric from puckering and distorting during embroidery.

The stabilizer you choose has a lot to do with the thickness of your fabric, the density of your stitches, and the type of garment you're embroidering.

Soft stabilizers are important if the garment is worn directly against the skin. The softer your knit fabric, the more noticeable a rough stabilizer will be.

With thinner fabrics, you also need to consider whether the stabilizer will show through to the front side of your garment.

Soft stabilizers are often less visible, even with lightweight or light-colored knits.

6. Avoid stretching with basting

Knits stretch easily.

Baste the fabric to the stabilizer before putting it in the embroidery hoop to avoid this.

In this case, I basted around the perimeter of the stabilizer before putting it in the hoop.

If you’re unfamiliar with basting, it’s a helpful process for keeping fabrics in place while you work by using temporary stitches that you’ll later remove.

When you’re basting the stabilizer in place, you need to use your ballpoint needle to protect the fabric.

Select the longest possible stitch length, and take extra care not to backstitch.

Looser stitches help keep the fabric and stabilizer from sliding or shifting, but they’re easy to remove with a seam ripper once you finish embroidering.

7. Remove excess stabilizer

To remove the cut-away stabilizer after embroidery, first cut the big sections.

Then, use sharp embroidery scissors to trim the remaining excess stabilizer very close to the stitching.

Cut as close as you can to the stitching.

For more precise cutting results, consider using curved scissors as slowly as possible.

Position the curve facing up so the tip of the scissors faces away from your fabric.

This will help prevent mishaps or accidentally snipping the knit garment.

Tear-away stabilizer is much more delicate than cut-away so you can remove it without scissors.

It would help to keep some stabilizers intact behind your looser, airier stitchwork, such as independent French knots or single rows of chain stitch.

You have to be very careful when removing the excess stabilizer. Make sure it stays put behind the stitches themselves.

8. Press the design

Press/steam your design from the back to smooth out the fabric and finish the embroidery process.

You never want to apply an iron directly to the front of your embroidery work because it can flatten out your stitches.

It would help if you didn’t slide the iron across your work.

For the best results, put a soft towel on your ironing board, place the embroidery face down, and lightly press the iron on the embroidery work.

When you’re ready to move to the next spot, you can lift and reposition the iron rather than slide it.

Congrats—you’ve completed your first embroidery project

There you have it! My tips and tutorial for using a machine to embroider on knit fabric.

What would you add? Have you experimented with knit fabric embroidery?

Now that we've walked through the process, hopefully, you have some added confidence for embroidering directly on your favorite knit fabrics and knitwear.

Remember, these techniques may take some time to master, so it's always a good idea to practice on an old T-shirt or scrap knit fabric first.

I can't wait to use this technique to make fun T-shirts for my family!