Santa Pocket How To

This set contains copyrighted and licensed designs for home use by the original purchaser only and is protected under U.S. Copyright Laws. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this product, or any portion of it, is forbidden. For more information regarding licensing and copyright visit http://www.embroideryprotection.org./consumer.html

If you want to use this design for sale at craft shows or similar activities, please contact me at

ramundson@sbcglobal.net 

MADE IN U.S.A. 

Copyright Roberta Amundson 2006

These designs were stitched with high-quality, 40-weight thread, which is recommended for these designs. If a different weight thread is used, the results may vary from the sample designs.

 Here are some hints for trimming your fabric very close to the stitching. 

1.      The most important thing I can suggest is having very good embroidery scissors. You'll want scissors that have curved blades, thin tips and very sharp blades. Those blade tips will get into the nooks and crannies easily. 

2.      Gently pull the fabric upwards as you trim. Keeping tension on the fabric allows your scissors to move easily along the trim line. Trim so the blades are pushed up against the trim line. 

3.      Slip the tip of the blade into areas that are tight or curved. For those tight places, do tiny cuts, as small as necessary, 1/8" or less. If your scissors are sharp, this goes very quickly. 

4.      You can also slip the scissor blade under a tight area like a curve or point and simply cut in just to the stitching. This allows you to pull the piece up, again giving you tension for trimming close in these areas. 

5.      Remove your hoop from your machine. Move your hoop around to cut in whatever direction works best for you. On curves or points, trim from opposite directions. 

6.      Once you've trimmed, if some areas still need a closer trim, pick up the hoop with your non-scissor hand and place your fingers under the area that needs closer trimming. You can actually press down against your fingers positioned under the hoop as you trim which helps to get that last bit of fabric off.

Supplies Needed

Please note you can use any fabrics you desire. Regular fleece works well for the beard instead of poodle fleece. Instructions will explain how to work with the poodle fleece, but other fabrics are easily trimmed.

I purchased my poodle fleece at JoAnne’s fabrics. I’ve also seen it at Hancock Fabrics and it can easily be found doing a search on-line. Poodle fleece comes in many colors so you could have fun making Santa’s beard up with various shades and add fleece and hat color fabric to contrast or match. 

You can purchase Hoop-It-All Dry Cover Up here  https://www.ericas.com/embdesigns/drycoverup.htm

Appliqué                                                           

1   5”x6” Piece White Fleece for inside of pocket (cuff & ball on the hat)

1   5”x5” Piece Ivory Poodle Fleece for the beard

1   4”x3” Scrap of solid red or print fabric for hat

1   5”x6” Piece of Medium Weight Tear Away Stabilizer

Water Soluble stabilizer for the first hooping

Medium Weight tear-away stabilizer for second hooping

Solvy water soluble stabilizer or something similar

Dry Cover Up (clear color) made by Hoop-it-All (This is a vinyl tear-away stabilizer and is sold in rolls)

Fabric or garment on which to embroider the pocket        

Embroidery thread:

Dark Burgundy for inside of the mouth

Light Peach for face

Rosy Peach for face cheeks, nose and mouth shading

Black for eyes

White for beard, cuff and ball satin cover stitching as well as eye twinkle

Red or color to match fabric used for the hat

 Stand Alone with Ribbon

 1   5”x6” Piece White Fleece for inside of pocket (cuff & ball on the hat)

1        5”x5” Piece Ivory Poodle Fleece for the beard

1   5”x6” Piece of White Fabric of choice for backside of pocket

1   4”x3” Scrap of solid red or print fabric for hat

3   5”x6” Pieces of Medium Weight Tear Away Stabilizer

1   15” Piece of Decorative 3/8” to 1/4” Ribbon

Water soluble stabilizer for two hoopings

Embroidery thread:

Dark Burgundy for inside of the mouth

Light Peach for face

Rosy Peach for face cheeks, nose and mouth shading

Black for eyes

White for beard, cuff and ball satin cover stitching as well as eye twinkle

Red or color to match fabric used for the hat

First Hooping - In this hooping you will make the front part of the pocket. You will need this piece for either the appliqué design or the stand alone design.
	Load the First Hooping design into your machine. I rotated the design 90 degrees to fit a 170x100 hoop. Hoop water soluble stabilizer into your hoop in preparation for embroidery.
	Color 1 - White Embroider the fabric placement line.
	Take the poodle fleece piece of fabric and the 5"x6" piece of tear away stabilizer and lay the fleece on top of the stabilizer. Lay both pieces so they cover the placement line with the fleece on top. Lay a piece of Solvy stabilizer on top. This keeps the fabric strands from catching in your needle as the machine sews.
	Embroider Color 2 - White This is the tack down line and secures the fabrics in place. Remove the Solvy stabilizer from the top of the design. It tears easily away.
	Remove the hoop from the machine. Gently pull the long fabric strands away from the stitching toward the center of the design in preparation for trimming the fabric and tear-away stabilizer.
	Using your curved, sharp embroidery scissors, trim away the poodle fleece and the tear away stabilizer. Trim right up next to the stitching.
	Smooth the fabric fibers down and away from the top edge of the design. The top is easily identified when you put the hoop back into the machine. Look on the screen and you will see where the nose and cheeks will be embroidered. This is the top of the design. Replace the hoop on the machine.
	Lay the Dry Cover Up vinyl piece over the fabric. Use the Dry Cover Up regardless of what kind of fabric you use for the beard as it will ensure no nap ever comes through the embroidery. Dry Cover Up is a Hoop-It-All product and is available through sewing machine dealers.
	Embroider Color 3 - Burgundy Inside of mouth Embroider Color 4 - Pale Peach Cheeks, nose and mouth Embroider Color 5 - Rosy Peach Rosy shading for cheeks, nose, mouth & tongue Embroider Color 6 - White Beard satin cover stitching
	Remove hoop from your machine. Remove the design from the hoop.
	Trim away the stabilizer to about 1/4" away from the satin embroidery stitching at the top of the design.    Then trim around the bottom beard edge of the design right next to the stitching.
	HINT: Turn the piece over to the back side and you can see exactly how well you have trimmed the bottom beard edge.
	Dab the top edge of design along the satin cover stitching with water to dissolve the water soluble stabilizer. Set aside for the second hooping.
SANTA SECOND HOOPING APPLIQUÉ
	This design is NOT stand alone and is meant to be sewn onto fabric or a garment. Load the Santa Second Hooping Applique design into your machine. Hoop medium weight stabilizer and fabric or garment to be embroidered with the appliqué. If you are using a fabric with nap, such as velvet, where you could end up with hoop burns, hoop only the stabilizer and sew a fix stitch to hold the fabric in place. Note: This appliqué, when finished, could be used as a separate piece which could be sewn or glued onto an item difficult to hoop, such as a back pack. If you plan to use the design in this way, I suggest making the design as shown, but not hooping any fabric with the stabilizer.
	Embroider Color 1 - White This is the placement line for your fabric. Lay your fleece piece so it completely covers the placement line.
	Embroider Color 2 - White This tacks down the fabric in place. Remove the hoop from your machine. Trim close to stitching as you did for the first hooping. Replace the hoop on the machine.
	Embroider Color 3 - White This is the placement line for the hat fabric.  Place the red fabric to cover the placement line. Embroider Color 4 - White This is the fabric tack down line. Remove the hoop from the machine and trim close to the stitching as before.  Replace the hoop on the machine.
	Lay a small piece of Dry Cover Up over the face area of the design.
	Embroider Color 5 - Pale Peach This is the face. Remove the Dry Cover Up vinyl from around the face by holding down the embroidered area of the face with your fingers and pulling the vinyl away at a 45 degree angle. It pulls away easily..
	Embroider Color 6 - Black This is the eyes Embroider Color 7 - White This is the eyebrows, eye twinkle and the upper hat cuff
	Embroider Color 8 - White This is the satin cover stitching for the ball on the hat and the bottom edge of the cuff. This is sewn prior to placing the front piece. Take the piece made in the first hooping and lay it over the design in the hoop, aligning the bottom edges. If desired, you can tape the piece on with masking tape where the nose is located. Make sure you smooth the long fibers up and away from the bottom of the top piece.
	Embroider Color 9 - White This is the satin cover stitching and attaches the front piece to the back piece to form the pocket. This is a great place to use your foot pedal. It allows you to hold the pocket in place as the machine sews, much as you would were you actually sewing the garment. It gives you great control and you can go as slowly as you like. If your machine does not allow you to use the foot pedal during embroidery, you can slow it down a bit which gives you time to make sure the front piece stays in position and to smooth those long fibers up and away from the stitching as much as possible as you embroider.
	Shown is the satin cover stitching sewn out around the beard area.
	Embroider Color 10 - Red (or thread color to match fabric used) This is the satin cover stitching for the hat. Finished design is shown. Remove hoop from the machine and design from the hoop.
	Remove the Dry Cover Up vinyl from beard and mustache area.
	Use the tips of the scissors to gently lift the long fibers in the beard and mustache area to give them fluff.
Finished Design.	Back side has nothing to irritate skin if used on clothing.
SECOND HOOPING (STAND ALONE)
This design is stand alone and is NOT meant to be sewn onto fabric or a garment.
Load the Santa Second Hooping design into your machine. Hoop water soluble stabilizer into the hoop.
	Embroider Color 1 - White This is the placement line for your ribbon.
	Fold the ribbon in half. Tape the ribbon ends together at the top of the hoop with the fold of the ribbon positioned well below the placement line. Hold or tape fold of ribbon in place as tack down line sews. Embroider Color 2 - White This will tack the ribbon in place. Trim the ribbon off about 1/4" below the tack down stitching.
	Embroider Color 3 - White This is the placement line for the fleece fabric. Lay the fleece fabric and tear-away stabilizer so the placement line is covered with the fleece on top. Embroider Color 4 - White This is the tack down line for the fabric and stabilizer.
	Remove the hoop from the machine. Trim the fabric and stabilizer from around the design close to the stitching as you did in the first hooping being careful not to trim ribbon. Replace the hoop on the machine.
	Embroider Color 5 - White This is the hat placement line. Position red fabric to cover the hat placement line. Embroider Color 6 - White This is the fabric tack down stitching for the hat.
	Trim around the hat close to the stitching as you did in the first hooping, being careful not to trim ribbon.
Note: Steps 7 to 9 are shown from making the appliqué above. The steps are identical but fabric looks different here.
	Lay a small piece of Dry Cover Up over the face area of the design.
	Embroider Color 7 - Pale Peach This is the face. Remove the Dry Cover Up vinyl from around the face.
	Embroider Color 8 - Black This is the eyes Embroider Color 9 - White This is the eyebrows, eye twinkle and the upper hat cuff
	Remove the hoop from the machine and turn it over to the back side. Spray the wrong side of back fabric piece with some embroidery spray adhesive and lay the fabric so the right side is up, facing you, to cover the placement line. This will be the back of the pocket. Return the hoop to the machine.
	Embroider Color 10 - White This is the back tack down line. Remove the hoop from the machine, turn to the back side and trim close to stitching.  Return the hoop to the machine.
Santa is now completed in the same way the appliqué was done. Finished stand alone design is shown at the end.
	Embroider Color 11 - White This is the satin cover stitching for the ball on the hat and the bottom edge of the cuff.   Take the piece made in the first hooping and lay in over the design in the hoop, aligning the bottom edges. If desired, you can tape the piece on with masking tape where the nose is located. Make sure you smooth the long fibers up and away from the bottom of the top piece.
	Embroider Color 12 - White This is the satin cover stitching and attaches the front piece to the back piece to form the pocket. This is a great place to use your foot pedal. It allows you to hold the pocket in place as the machine sews, much as you would were you actually sewing the garment. It gives you great control and you can go as slowly as you like. If your machine does not allow you to use the foot pedal during embroidery, you can slow it down a bit which gives you time to make sure the front piece stays in position and to smooth those long fibers up and away from the stitching as much as possible.
	Shown is the satin cover stitching sewn out around the beard area.
	Embroider Color 13 - Red (or thread color to match fabric used) This is the satin cover stitching for the hat. Finished design is shown. Remove hoop from the machine and design from the hoop.
	Remove the Dry Cover Up vinyl from beard and mustache area.
	Use the tips of the scissors to gently lift the long fibers in the beard and mustache area to give them fluff.
This is the way Santa looks when you remove him from the hoop. Trim water soluble stabilizer to about 1/4" from the edges all the way around and then dab away the water soluble residue.	Here is Santa finished. Note I've made him with various prints on his hat. You can use other colors besides red.
	Front piece forms a small pocket perfect for some cash or maybe a set of earrings. Great alone for an ornament, gift tag or door hangar. The appliqué works well on clothing, for a wall hanging or on a Christmas stocking.