How to make a badge from cloth:
In my day, Girl Scout badges were 1 1/2" rounds. You can make your any shape you want. Try hearts or stars or a free-form shape.
Select a 100% cotton or linen fabric in a color of your choice for the face of the badge. I've chosen pale purple. A fat quarter will give you many badge blanks.
You'll also need plain cotton muslin for the back and something—Unique Tear-Away stabilizer, or your favorite non-fusable interfacing—for the middle layer.
Using a pencil, draw a bunch of shapes on the fabric. Pin the three layers together with your colored fabric on top.
Using a tight satin stitch, stitch a 1/8" border around all of the shapes. Leave the badges attached to the piece of cloth until you have embroidered your design, which you can do by hand or machine. You can also bead it or anything that comes to mind.
Once you've finished the badge, trim it close to the satin stitching with a pair of sharp scissors and seal the edges with Fray-Check.
Click here to return to the merit badge page.