Items embroidered with personalized letters, dates or images make for wonderful and thoughtful gifts for any occasion. Monogrammed towels not only elegantly accent a bathroom but they make for lovely anniversary or wedding keepsakes too.
If you like the idea of creating a personalized gift, there are a few things to keep in mind. If you want to start with monograming towels, make sure your design isn’t too dense. Terry cloth is typically pretty thick but monogramming is ideal as the letters are usually well spaced. You will need a few specific techniques for embroidering the towels so read on for a few tips.
THE TOOLS FOR MONGRAMMING TOWELS
You don’t need a special sewing machine to embroider personalized items. Any machine will do. You will also require
• Fabric marking pen
• 40wt. rayon thread in your chosen colors
• 90/14 needles
• Tear away stabilizer
• Water soluble stabilizer
STABILIZER
The firmest stabilizer on the market is cut away stabilizer. This will give you the best support during the embroidering and also when laundering towels. Be wary though that using cut away stabilizer means the back of the towel will be seen so it it’s perhaps better to consider using tear away in order for the stabilizer to be removed from the back of the towel neatly and cleanly.
Tear away is just as good as cut away in terms of firmness and will do a good job supporting the towel during the embroidery process. The downside is it may not last as well during laundering. You’ll have to decide if you’re willing to take the chance for the sake of easily and cleanly removing the stabilizer. I’d recommend experimenting with types of stabilizer and deciding which you prefer to work with and which effect you favor.
Stabilizer should be placed on top of the towel when embroidering. This is because towels have a great deal of loft, or fuzziness. To make sure the loft of the fabric is maintained during embroidery, use water soluble or rinse away stabilizer. Doing so will also make sure that the design doesn’t sink into the fabric and get lost. Simply run the stabilizer under warm water when you’re finished with the embroidery process.
NEEDLES
The 90/14 needle is fantastic for Embroidery Digitizing Service. It’s really sharp so it penetrates fabric brilliantly and the way the eye and shank are crafted means that rayon or polyester thread won’t fray during sewing.
MONOGRAMMING THE TOWEL
Begin with a printed template of your chosen monogram. Print it at the actual size using semi-transparent paper. Trim around the design and then place it in different sections on the towel to decide where you’d think it looks best.
When you’re happy with the placement, use the fabric marking pen to create marks on the towel that will guide the position of the hoop.
Next, layer the towel with stabilizer under the area you’re going to embroider and hoop the towel and stabilizer.
Now you’re ready to use your machine. Place the hoop on it and choose the monogram design. Place the stabilizer on top of the hoop and allow it to float as you stitch the design. Stitch your design then remove the hoop from the machine, and then remove the towel from the hoop.
Tear the stabilizer from the fabric and finally rinse away the water soluble stabilizer.
Monograming towels is an easy project and the final result makes for a personalized gift that is sure to be appreciated.
