Machine Sewing for Boy Scout Merit Badges

So, my darling husband is an Eagle Scout and has mentioned several times that he'd like to be able to put together a shadow box with all his Scout stuff. Military folks are generally big fans of shadow boxes, and he's no exception. And since he bought me an awesome new sewing machine for Christmas, I agreed to tackle his completely empty sash and giant pile of merit badges. I'm still unclear about why this wasn't done years ago but he tells me his troop wasn't big on uniforms.

I've never tackled patches before so I did some googling to see what the best method was for sewing them on. I was disappointed in the lack of info, but found just enough to give it a whirl.

I picked up some transparent thread (Sulky 232 2001) and some dark green thread (943 1272) to match the sash from JoAnn's. Loaded the green in the bobbin and the transparent in the top of the machine.

I ironed and starched the sash since it had some pretty deep creases. There is apparently no right or wrong way to lay them out, so I put the required ones (silver binding) down the middle and the others on either side. After laying them all out, I stapled them in place instead of fighting with pins. Some of the patches are thicker than others and I don't think straight pins would work very well. The staples come out pretty easily and don't leave any marks behind on the patch. My recommendation is to put two staple in each patch to really keep them in place. See the first aid patch in the first photo. I only used one staple in the first couple and they shifted a little while I was sewing. I couldn't find a staple remover in the house, so I used a Leatherman- my Eagle Scout isn't the only handy one in this family!

I used a simple straight stitch (using my machine's default settings) to slowly stitch in a circle, just inside the binding of the patch (see photo below). I can't stress enough to take it slowly. They're small, but it is possible to sew a pretty good circle. I was really thankful my machine has some time-saving features like a knee lift and an automatic thread cutter. I sewed each patch individually, but it probably would look fine if you did a whole row without lifting your needle. Or wait to cut the extra thread between patches until the very end. I'm sure there are some time-savers that you could incorporate.

That's it! It was really time-consuming, but the sash looks awesome and you really can't see the stitching at all. Next project- the uniform shirt.