When you want to liven up a garment, accessory, luggage piece or even hats you can sew on badges to get the new look easily. Badges or patches when placed strategically can immediately change the look of a garment or accessory and take it from boring to spunky in a matter of minutes. If you have children and they keep earning badges of merit you would want to sew them on. However, as intimidating as it might sound, sewing on badges is quite easy once you know how to do it.

To begin this process of sewing on a badge, begin by placing the badge on the place where you want it. Now secure the badge well with some pins so that it stays in place and doesn’t shift when you are sewing it on. Now if you are putting the patch on a garment you need to fix the patch and then try the garment on to make sure that the patch or the badge looks right in the place. If your patch needs a little readjustment you can do it at this stage easily.

Now thread the needle making sure that the thread that you are using isn’t too long. Keep the thread at a length of approximately 18inches for easy maneuvering. If your thread is too long then you might get bothered by knots. Once you have the thread ready make a knot at the end of the thread. You can thread a needle by hand by holding the non knotted end between your forefinger and thumb and then passing it through the eye of the needle. You can also take the help of a needle threader if you find threading a needle this way difficult.

Pass the needle through the badge and the fabric making sure that the knot is on the wrong side of the patch. Leave a space of 1/8th of an inch from where you started stitching keeping this distance from the last stitch at all times. Continue stitching around the entire perimeter of the badge till you have completed stitching it all the way through. Now knot the thread on the underside of the patch by looping your thread through a single stitch. Pull the thread tightly to secure the knot and then cut off any excess thread that is left. Lastly take off the extra safety pins that you were using to secure the patch in place.

You can also sew on badges with the help of a sewing machine if you don’t want to do the same by hand. Choose a thread that matched the color of your patch and then tread your machine. You can also choose a contrasting color depending on the look that you want to give your badge. Once this is done you need to start sewing you badge. Use the top of the badge as your starting point and sew all along the edge of your badge using the regular stitch mode ending at your starting point. Once done, cut the excess thread that connects the badge to the machine and your garment is ready for use with the badge.