Embroidering Neoprene Can Koozies with Plastic Overlay

Can Koozies are fun to embroider. They require a small design, are quick, and sew up fast when finished. I saw a tutorial for them on Embroidery Library: Kenny's Korner and I immediately set about ordering some of the blanks from The SewPhisticated Stitcher. I later found some that are slightly less expensive on Allstitch, but the customer service from Sewphisticated is above and beyond great! I was very excited when I got them AND my box of new Madeira embroidery thread. I ordered the regular can blanks and some wraps. As you can see, some of the wraps have some very neat zebra designs on them.

I decided to embroider one for each of the kids, giving me five samples. Two of my girls choose the zebra stripes, but I found that when I tried to embroider them, I was having some serious problems. I was using a titanium embroidery needle, Madeira thread, and proper stabilizer for the project, but my thread kept breaking. Every time I would come close to the plastic in the stripes my thread would ravel and tear. I had never had this problem before. I decided to leave it be for a while and embroider the others.

Not being one to give up easily, I scoured the internet for suggestions on this problem. I couldn't find anything about it. So I started thinking, "I just need a smoother surface so that the needle doesn't catch." Solution? Embroidery topping. My local quilt/embroidery store carries it at $1.25/yd for water soluble topping. Topping is just a thin material that is usually used over towels and napped material to prevent the embroidery stitches from sinking into the material.

Today I sat down and embroidered two of the zebra striped koozies using the topping. My thread broke twice, in the same place in the design each time. But compared to the constant breakage and raveling of my previous experience, I believe that this was a successful experiment.