DIY Embroidered Pocket Plants for Beginners

We’re moving in two weeks and I put a ban on buying plants until we get settled. Usually when the warmer weather hits, I’m at my favorite nursery every other week just seeing what’s in season. Now I need to get my plant fix in other ways.

A few months ago, I took on a new DIY challenge and picked up embroidery. DMC reached out to see if I wanted to try a pattern from their 1000 Patterns Project and truthfully I was equal parts nervous & excited. Growing up, my mom used DMC patterns to hand stitch stockings for each of us. The same details and colors that defined Christmas for me put embroidery on some kind of higher DIY level I didn’t think I could reach.

And while I’m still a long ways away from my mom’s skill and a full stocking, I’m loving DMC’s new Magic Paper for beginner patterns!

(not a sponsored post- I genuinely loved working with the Magic Paper kit and decided a full DIY/thoughts post would help other embroidery newbies out there!)

DMC has a ton of free plant patterns (sortable by difficulty level!) that would be perfect for this project, but I used the Cactus Collection Magic Paper Kit because it already had all the plants I wanted. When I made the embroidered plant wraps I spent a lot of time sizing, tracing, and praying that my stitches would cover up my marks.

The Magic Paper kits have pre-drawn designs on water-soluble paper that you just cut, stick, sew, and wash away! I really wish I took a video of it disappearing because it was so cool to see!

You’ll Need
plant patterns + magic paper
embroidery thread
embroidery needle
embroidery hoop
shirt

DMC does have blank sheets of Magic paper so you can use your own designs, though I haven’t tested those out. And when they say water-soluble, they mean water-soluble. If you look closely at my sheet you can see some holes in the paper. That’s from our puppy getting into my craft supply and licking the page…

Also also, there are a bunch of great, larger plant patterns on Pinterest like Marlene’s Monstera which would be perfect out of a back jean pocket!

Cut out your plants with enough border to firmly stick to your shirt.

Arrange your pieces in the pocket, making sure the placements won’t sew your pocket up. I split the Pothos vine and layered the Monstera over them.

Peel the paper off the backing and stick on.

An embroidery hoop will keep your piece in place if you’re embroidering a thinner fabric. If you’re tackling a thicker fabric, like denim, you can probably skip the hoop.

For the Monstera leaf outlines I used 6 threads of DMC 319 for a chunky split stitch, 2 DMC 5283’s for the silvery veins, and 2 threads of DMC 3753 in a backstitch for the Pothos vine body and satin stitches for its leaves. The blue pattern lines were a bit difficult to see on this shirt so I used them more as a suggestion and experimented with new stitches. Looking back, the backstitch with the metallic thread was stiffer than I expected and in the future I’ll stick with a more basic stitch.

Now the magic part! Just pour water over the paper…

Rub it in a bit…

And viola! The white paper disappeared easily. The dark blue outlines gummed up under the thread a bit, but after a toss in the wash, all traces of the paper were gone.

I’m pretty ecstatic about these kits- I was able to learn some new stitches and knock out a finished piece in a few hours. Plus, my sister has already tried to steal it, so that obviously makes it a win.