This idea came from a New Home Educator and friend, Coni Martin, who does wonderful things with her machine!

Materials:

" Ready-made pullover shirt, sweatshirt, or front of one you're making

" Small finished embroidery, applique, fabric panel

" Braid or ribbon

" Invisible nylon thread

" Glue Stick or Liquid Pins

" Light weight fleece or batting

" Glass beads, charms, trims (optional)

Helpful but not required:

" Applique scissors

Procedure:

1. Do an embroidery, applique, or use a piece of fabric no bigger than 5" square. Do the embroidery or applique through your main fabric and the light weight fleece. If using regular fabric, put fleece behind it. This will be your "medallion" or centerpiece.
2. Draw a square around your medallion so that the points are at the top, bottom, and sides. Baste through the fabric and the fleece.
3. Cut 1/2" outside the basting stitches. Cut the fleece away from the seam allowance, close to the stitching. (An applique scissors is helpful here.)
4. Using the glue stick to hold the fabric, turn back first the corners, then the sides, at the basting line, so that your medallion has finished edges.
5. Place the medallion patch on the shirt where you want it. (Mine was 4" square, and I put it on a turtle neck shirt 2" down from the neckline. Center it from side to side.
6. Mark a line going up from the point on the bottom to each armhole seam. Mark another line under each side of your medallion about 1" down, coming to a point. Continue marking to look like the drawing.
7. Use a glue stick or Liquid pins to hold your trim in place on the lines, being sure not to stretch the trim as you apply it. Turn under the ends, or thread them through to the inside, depending on the kind of trim you're using.
8. Reduce your top thread tension and stitch over the trim with invisible nylon thread.

My medallion was puffy and I didn't like the way it looked, so I did stippling with the invisible thread all around the embroidery, and the design really stands out now!. I sewed glass beads over the holly for a festive look.

The way Coni originally did this design, she did the embroidery directly on the shirt and added the trim. She did a small embroidery on each intersection instead of couching the trim down. The shirt I had was green and I wanted a green wreath on it, so I decided to do the embroidery separately and attach it. Either way, the yoke effect of the trim adds a nice touch.

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