Embroidering towels and high-pile fabrics

Creating gifts with an embroidery machine is a practical addition you can achieve with your machine. Popular gifts include bags, pouches, cushions, lantern bags, and, if you need something quickly, a towel, which doesn't require much sewing time and is also quite inexpensive to buy. Especially in summer, towels are very popular gifts for the swimming pool, the beach, or even the bathroom.

However, towels are made of bulky fabric, and the small loops can create unsightly bleeds through the embroidery if you don't follow one important step. In this post, I'll show you my method and what you need for embroidering towels (and other bulky fabrics).

My materials

To prevent the high-pile loops from working their way between the stitches during embroidery, you'll need a water-soluble film that's placed on top while you work. You can find this film at craft stores. It's important that it's actually a film meant to be laid on top (not a water-soluble stabilizer or a very thick, water-soluble film for stabilization). In my case, I used Solvy by Sulki. You'll also need tear-away stabilizer underneath with a minimum weight of 80 g/m².

The sandwich

Tear-resistant fleece at the bottom - towel in the middle - water-soluble film on top.

The embroidery

You can now embroider on the water-soluble film and you will see that no terry cloth loops will work their way through the embroidery.

Remove the water-soluble film again

After embroidering, remove the excess tear-away stabilizer from underneath and the water-soluble film from on top. First, remove as much of the film as possible by gently peeling it off all around.

For smaller bits, you can use tweezers, but please be careful not to pull out any terry cloth loops.

Small residues can easily be dabbed away with a damp cloth or sponge. The film dissolves very quickly on its own. At the latest, nothing will be left of the film after the first wash.

Now all you have to do is wrap your towel nicely and you'll have a gift that the recipient will surely be happy about.

The embroidery files

Mouse with dandelion

Mouse with daisies

Sleeping Mouse

You can find it in the 👜 shop (click 👆🏻)

I hope you enjoy your embroidery!

Sincerely,

Cora Sandra 🤍