"Instant" Gratification With Machine Embroidery: The Pieces of Pi T-Shirt

Lars Models His New Pi T-Shirt

I have wanted to embroider this Pieces of Pi design from Urban Threads onto a shirt for Lars ever since I first saw the design, and I finally "got around to it."

Pieces of Pi Design, with Pi Symbol Formed by the Actual Digits of Pi

I used a size 80/12 ballpoint Organ embroidery needle with Mettler 60/2 cotton embroidery thread.  The design required the Mega Hoop, oriented horizontally rather than vertically, which meant that I had to open up one of the side seams in my plain orange T-shirt so that I could hoop the shirt properly.  I fused a layer of OESD Poly Mesh stabilizer to the reverse side of the T-shirt, which would have been plenty of support for this open, light-stitch-density design, but then I realized that if I tried to hoop the T-shirt itself, I'd be going into the seam where the sleeves attach.  I could have reduced the embroidery design, of course, but BIGGER IS BETTER for a T-shirt design -- no resizing for me!

Stitching Completed!

I decided to hoop a piece of lightweight tearaway stabilizer (bad decision; read on to find out why), and then I adhered the unhooped T-shirt to the stabilizer with 505 spray adhesive.  I used a couple of ordinary office supply binder clips to keep the excess T-shirt fabric out of the way of the needle, and turned on the basting feature in my Bernina 750 QE to further secure the T-shirt to the stabilizer before the design stitched out.   That's the stitched box you see just around the design area -- they are long basting stitches that easily come out once stitching is complete.

After the design was embroidered, I simply used a 4-thread overlock stitch on my serger to close up the side seam again.  And then I would have been FINISHED with this insta-project, if it weren't for that pesky tearaway stabilizer...  If I had thought this through better, I would have realized that the paper-like qualities of a tearaway stabilizer would create a stiff, scratchy bulk behind the embroidery design.  I wanted the design area to be as soft and comfortable as the rest of the T-shirt, which is why I chose a light stitching, low-density design in the first place and polymesh stabilizer.  So I spent the next hour and a half painstakingly ripping out every little speck of tearaway stabilizer with a tweezers...

Picking Out Tearaway Stabilizer with a Tweezers

I love how beautifully this design was digitized and how well it stitched out.  I really like the cotton embroidery thread, which I had never used for machine embroidery before.  I do have several other Urban Threads embroidery designs that I want to put on shirts for the boys, and Anders is begging me to make a Pi shirt for him as well.  I'm going to have the same issue of needing to hoop a separate stabilizer and this tweezer nonsense was VERY ANNOYING, so I think I'm going to try using a water-soluble stabilizer in the hoop like Aquamesh or Sulky Solvy next time.  That way, once the embroidery is complete, all I'll need to do is submerge the T-shirt in water or run it through the laundry and that extra stabilizer will just dissolve and rinse away.