How to Sew on Scout Patches

As the mother of a Gold Award recipient and an Eagle Scout, I've sewn hundreds of patches on uniforms, blankets and tote bags.

In fact, I stitched 130 patches onto Pete's blanket last weekend. It was time to get the 2010 Jamboree patches out of that shoebox! This is what I learned...

Any scout mom or grandma knows that most patches are backed with a plastic-like stabilizer that seals in all the embroidery threads. That is not fusible web! It is almost impossible to stitch through by hand, so I use my machine. (There are some new iron-on Girl Scout patches, but I've seen many of them fall off. Add some stitches to be safe.)

 I use a mono-filament invisible thread in the needle and a regular thread in the bobbin that matches the color of whatever I'm adding the patches to. You might need to loosen the top tension if you see too much of the bobbin thread coming up through to the front of the patch.

Choosing the right needle is a puzzle! I had Superior 90/14 topstitch needles on hand, but they were not strong enough. I liked the feel of the ballpoint needles on the fleece blanket, but again, the 100/16 needles snapped if I hit something they didn't like. I had the best luck with 110/18 jeans needles. I only broke one of those. It's a good idea to wear glasses or safety goggles to protect your eyes from flying broken needles!

Position the patches and use safety pins to hold them in place. If you can't get the pins through that awful plastic backing, tape them on, removing the tape as you go.

Drop your feed dogs and use your embroidery or free motion quilting presser foot. I bring the bobbin thread to the top so it doesn't make a knotted mess on the back. Start stitching, SLOWLY, around the patch. With the feed dogs dropped, you will need to move the patch/blanket under the needle. This way, you don't have to turn the whole blanket to get around the patch- think hula hoop motion. After you get all the way around, overlap the beginning about an inch before moving to the next patch. Lift the presser foot, slide the blanket over, and start the next patch. I trim all those connecting threads between patches later. If there are two patches abutting each other, you can just keep stitching.

Uniforms are a little easier. (That double layer of polar fleece was not my friend.) By free motion stitching, you can slide the sleeve onto the free arm of the machine and easily stitch around the patches.

In this closeup, you can see that I'm trying to stitch in that ditch where the satin stitching meets the patch fabric. That seems to be the point of least resistance.

I really try to avoid hand stitching, and I have been known to sew pockets shut by machine stitching pocket patches! In this case, I decided it would be nice to do it right, and hand stitched the Eagle Scout badge. That was a tiny pocket, because there is a pen slot on the left side, so it was hard to fit a hand in there to keep the pocket open. If you use something like a credit card or needle case inside the pocket, you can stick the needle in until it hits the plastic, and make your stitch without closing the pocket.

 This is what happens when your son earns a patch at camp and sews it onto his dirty shirt by himself! His friend made fun of him for sewing the pocket shut. Haha!

When you are done, use hair elastics (hair ties, pony tail holders) to keep your thread neatly on the spool. This must have been a Sew Many Ways tip, but I can't find it right now. We'll just give Karen credit for it anyway, because she's awesome!

I hope this helps some scout moms. Enjoy your time in scouting!

WIP Wednesday

This week, all I have is a little bit of this and that. It's better than nothing, I suppose.

Finish: The only finish this week was a Boy Scout pillowcase for a new Eagle Scout. It has become a tradition for me to make one for each new Eagle in Pete's troop. I'll continue until I run out of fabric!

Before I put away the stash of BSA prints, I prepared some kits. The next time The next 4 times I need one, the fabric selection and cutting is already done!

Swaps: Sixteen 9-patches are ready for the next round of Ninnie Nines. A whole week early!

Last round, I pressed the last 2 seams open. This time, they wanted to whirl.

Bright hopes blocks are ready to be mailed to Jana for the Modern Stash Bee. She liked my little Low Volume Bright Hopes, and asked us to make 12" blocks. It should be a cool quilt.

 In Progress: Julia is making progress on Fred's quilt. Eight blocks done, 56 to go!

This is how she left things when she went to the beach. Machine turned on, pieces waiting to be sewn. Her college roommate came down to visit for the day, and the beach was calling!

Have a great day and visit the other fun WIP links.

Eagle Progress

 FYI: there are no quilts in this post, but it is a little crafty.

My son, Pete, completed his Eagle Scout project this week. He has been working with the Rhode Island Veteran's Home to beautify the hallway leading to the activities department. There is a wall of windows that overlooks the dumpsters out back. Not pretty! The plan was to paint the windows with faux stained glass to allow light to come through while blocking the view.

We opted to paint the scenes on frosted privacy vinyl for a number of reasons. Pete found images of eight lighthouse in Rhode Island and free-handed the enlargements. Then he used a makeshift lightbox (my Ott light tucked under my machine extension table) to trace the leading lines.

Pete then gathered his troop to help color in the drawings with Gallery Glass paints.

 

"Thank you for your support!"

  

Pete's best friend and Eagle Scout came with us to the Vet's Home to help install the vinyl.

 

The folks who work and live there were really happy with the results.

 Job well done, Pete!

As we watch the events unfold in Boston, we are more proud of him than ever that he has chosen to serve our country in the Marine Corps. There are two titles that a man never loses, Eagle Scout and Marine. (There are no "former" Eagle Scouts or "former" Marines.) Pete will soon be both!

Boy Scout Update

Pete is packed and ready to go to the National Jamboree, with 18 hours to spare!
The bus pulls away at 6 am on Saturday, headed for a day of sightseeing in Philadelphia.
They will spend Sunday at King's Dominion and the Jambo starts on Monday!


Class A shirts are pressed and ready! They won't be clean and wrinkle-free for long.


I decided he needed a new pillowcase today, so I finally used some of the Boy Scout fabric I bought ages ago.
Jackie, thank you for keeping the pattern handy on your sidebar!

I've always admired the Turk's Head neckerchief slides that other boys had, so I found a tutorial and made some. Pete will be wearing the official Jambo slide, but he'll have these for back up.

We have some new Eagle Scout friends!
Fred...

and his brother Matt!
(See the Turk's Head slides?)

I'm really going to miss that goofball!

What to do?

There are so many things to be done, but I can't seem to motivate myself to do any of them.


My second batch of Three-By-Three swap blocks arrived last week. I could/should make a third set and get them in the mail this week.


My sister's phlox are gorgeous! Five feet tall- no kidding! Mine are pathetic little plants that get eaten by ...


Bambi.
Not a sharp picture through the window screen, but I knew she'd run as soon as I lifted it.


The deer usually eat every lily in my yard, but this one escaped. We call them Slug Lilies. There were several plants when we moved here. We were headed to a family reunion so picked a huge bouquet to take with us. It had rained, and the flowers were on the ground. We didn't realize they were covered with slugs until Julia was holding the whole bunch for a picture!


I love boys in uniform. Pete is holding his troop flag on the left. We love attending the dress parade at the end of their camp week, even though it usually rains.

OK. Enough stalling. Time to do something!

Lots of Scouts

I haven't talked about scouts in a while. I was ecstatic that we had full attendance at two Girl Scout meetings in a row. So I had to take a picture! A couple of years ago, we commissioned my nephew who is in art school to design a logo for our troop. We put it on t-shirts, note cards, swaps and stickers. We might need something new before our next big trip.
At next week's leader meeting, we'll be celebrating Leader Appreciation Month. The tea wallets from this tutorial are my latest assembly-line, stash busting project. If I can make 40 in 8 days, they will be gifts for my leaders. Shhh. I think only a couple of them read my blog.I just went looking for buttons for the tea wallets. My mother's old sewing basket is full of buttons still on their original cards. 31 cents! I love the strip of double knit polyester with the covered buttons sewn on. I'll have to ask mom what the garment was.And a little something for the Boy Scout in my house. A big pile of fabric from Alderwood Quilts. Super service!! We had a nice chat about this line of fabric and Eagle Scouts. Why doesn't GSUSA license some fabric already?! I'm hopeful it will happen before the centennial in 2012. I don't have a plan yet for Pete's Boy Scout quilt, but I wanted to get the fabric before it is no longer available, although it's in its 3rd printing. I told him it will be his Eagle quilt and he's good with that. He's ready for his board of review to advance to the next rank. (I'm a bad mother. I can't remember which one.)Julia is getting her application together for her Girl Scout Silver Award project. You'll be seeing her soon as a guest blogger. Here's a hint: QOV.

Ciao,
Tina