How To Embroider a Stuffed Plush Animal or Teddy Bear

It's easy to create a personalized stuffed plush animal with your home or commercial embroidery machine. Our line of soft embroiderable plush animals from Cubbies, Embroider Buddy and Hidey Boo all have zippers which hide a secret compartment. Opening the zipper reveals a self contained stuffing pouch, which when removed, enables you to hoop the teddy bear and embroider directly on it. The removable stuffing pods also make them machine washable, so they can be easily cleaned if needed. Once you learn the simple tips and trick to embroider the stuff animals, you will be stitching them out in no time. They make great gifts and can also be a profit generating product for your business.

1. Choose Your Animal to Embroider. We have lots of embroidery friendly animals and plush toys to choose from. If you can't find one that suits your needs, we also have an embroiderable sports ball collection. In this example we chose a Cubbies Monkey, but the process is the same for all the animals.
   
   
2. Grab your Embroidery Supplies:  
   • Backing: We like to use a peel and stick stabilizer. It makes the whole process go a lot more smoothly. The sticky backing helps to hold the animal securely making sure it doesn't shift during embroidery. If you don't have a peel and stick backing, you can substitute a tear away stabilizer and temporary spray adhesive.
   • Topping: To keep the fur of the animal from penetrating through your stitching, you are going to need a topping. With the animals, we prefer to use Stitch-N-Heat Film, as it does the best job with minimal mess.
   • Needles: An 11/75 size sharp needle works great. Make sure you have a sharp needle and not a ball point, as it may have difficulty getting through the surface.
     
     
3. Remove the Stuffing Pods Unzipper the animal and remove the stuffing pods. Most of them have 2 pods, one in the head and one in the body.
   
   
4. Hoop your Sticky Backing only, with the sticky side up. Place your animal onto the sticky part of your backing using your hands to smooth out the surface. Place the Stitch-N-Heat film on the top and secure it with some tape. When using the sticky backing, it's only required to hoop the stabilizer in the hoop as the peel and sick backing will hold the animal in place. 
   
   
5. Attach your hooped animal to your machine and start embroidering. Keep a close eye on your machine while stitching, making sure none of the animals extremities are getting caught and interfering with your machine's movement.
   
   
6. After embroidered, use a small craft iron to melt away the Stitch-n-Heat. Make sure the iron doesn't come in contact with fur on your animal. Place the stuffing back into your animal, and you are finished!