FREE as a Bird

How to Embroider on Hessian and Access the FREE Bird Designs

There are many FREE designs included in Hatch Embroidery software which available to you during the 30 Day Free Trial. We picked these three beautiful folk birds for a little project that shows you how you can embroider on a difficult type of fabric. The result is a lovely hessian bunting that you can hang up to decorate your balcony or a protected area in your garden.

Supplies Needed

  • Embroidery machine and needles
  • Embroidery hoop to fit designs
  • Hatch Embroidery software (see below how you can download the 30 Day Free Trial below)
  • 3 pieces of hessian fabric
  • 6 pieces of tear-away stabilizer
  • 6 pieces of water soluble topping
  • Assorted embroidery threads

Note: We recommend using a titanium needle for embroidering on course fabric, such as hessian, as these durable needles hold their shape and sharpness better than regular chromium coated ones. Read more on machine embroidery needles here

Skill Level

Beginner embroiderer level is sufficient if you only want to embroider the designs or make slight changes to them, such as changing colors.

Getting Your Designs Ready

If you have not got Hatch Embroidery, you can easily download the 30 Day Free Trial here. You will find that the software comes with many more free designs you can use to practice using the various features and tools.

Open the bird designs, make any changes you like, such as resizing, changing the colors or adding lettering.

Resequencing the Designs

It is important to establish the stitching order, so that objects in the foreground are sewn after those in the background. If you combine designs or design elements, you will also want to ensure that like-colors are sewn together.

Open the ‘Resequencing’ menu on the right side of the screen and click on ‘Colors’. As you click on each color chip, each section of the design in the selected color should be highlighted in pink. Use the arrows on the bottom of the Resequence Docker to reorder the design.

Exporting the Designs to Your Machine File Format

Once you are happy with your design, click Output Design>Export. Select the embroidery file format suitable for your embroidery machine and export the file. 

Note: Another way of doing this is clicking File>Export Design.

Getting Ready to Embroider

For each design you will need to place 2 pieces of stabilizer underneath, and 2 pieces of topping on the top of your hessian fabric. Place them in the hoop making sure that the surface is as smooth as possible.

You Are Now Ready to Go!

Be sure to share your creation with us on our Facebook page, we love to see them! 

Happy Embroidering!
Bernadett and the Hatch Team

Designed for hobby embroiderers, Hatch Embroidery is loaded with powerful features and tools. Powered by Wilcom for truly amazing results. Click to download your free trial now and experience first hand the ease of use, incredible creativity and flexibility Hatch offers.

Hatch Embroidery software products are in popular use in over 100 countries. It is time to join the global trend and give Hatch a try! The 30-day Free Trial grants you unlimited use of all the amazing features and the 30-day Money Back Guarantee ensures that there is absolutely no risk involved.

Let us know in a comment below how useful you found this article and please do share your embroidery on our Facebook page. We love to see your work!