The Embroidery Plan That Wasn't

Some of the supplies for the project

At the end of February, I had this idea that I would make some kitchen towels to take with me when we visited our London daughter at the end of March. Kitchen towels make great hostess gifts.

At first, I was going to decorate the towels using the pattern that I used for my Dad's wife's birthday gift. Over the years, I've made a lot of this type of towel. I went to the project box. What was on top was a package of three linen dish towels.

Test front

These towels have been hanging around in the project box for too many years. I decided I would decorate these. This type of towel would look better with a simple embroidery motif. 

I happened upon an embroidery video on the Oklahoma Embroidery Supply and Design (OESD) site that shared how to get perfect embroidery results embroidering on a tea towel. I liked the basil motif that was featured in the video. I could think of at least another use for the collection so I purchased the set for about $30.

Test back

Next, I purchased two types of stabilizer. One was a sticky back wash a way fusible and the other was a fusible to back the cotton fabric that stays in after the embroidery.  

Stitching the first thread color

I purchased a thirty yard bolt of the Shape Flex stabilizer. Before COVID, I believe this product was about five dollars a yard. It was $7.49 a yard. I had a 50% off coupon and because I purchased a bolt, I received another 10% discount from Joann Fabric and Craft store.

Second stitching--Out of the hoop
tear away stabilizer removed

I spent $130 on the fusible products. I had the sticky backed wash away fusible on hand.

I pulled a piece of white on white cotton fabric from my large chunk of scraps that was large enough to back all the motifs in the collection to put into a wall hanging project. I chose colors of 40 weight Floriani polyester thread and stitched a test sample. 

On the sample, I used a variety of threads in the bobbin: a 50 weight cotton, a 40 weight polyester and a 100 weight polyester. I knew for the tea towel, I would need to use the same color thread for the bobbin. For the wall hanging, I could use a lighter weight thread in the bobbin.

I'm glad I tested. Even though I used the same stabilizer combination that was shown in the video, my final embroidery rippled after removing all the stabilizer.  One of the thread colors didn't show well.

Regarding the test of bobbin threads, the 100 weight polyester thread made for the least thread build up. The motif, however, contained so many stitches that it was stiff like a badge. It wasn't at all what I had envisioned on the towel. 

Finished second stitch out
after removing the stabilizer 
and before pressing

I tried again. This time I added Shape Flex, a fusible stabilizer made by Pellon, to the back of the cotton fabric. I soaked the fusible backed fabric in Perfect Sew, a liquid stabilizer. This product is similar to Terial Magic. I let the fabric dry. I ironed out the wrinkles. The fabric was stiff like cardstock. 

I hooped a piece of wash away stabilizer. I floated two pieces of tear away under the hoop. I floated the fabric on the hooped stabilizer and I used a fusible wash away topper. The topper helps the embroidery stitches to not sink into the fabric. I changed one of the thread colors. I stitched out the design a second time.

The thread color change was a good choice. The second stitching looked great until I removed the stabilizer. I still got some rippling but, it was less than the first time. The motif was still too stiff to place on the tea towel.

In the end, I took no tea towels as hostess gifts. I'm back to the drawing board with the tea towels. I have options. I could hand embroider a design on the towels. I could search for a line drawing type of embroidery to purchase. I could develop my own design from a design in one of my books. 

Instead of pursuing the tea towel embroidery, I'm going to work on stitching out the other nine motifs in the herbal collection that I purchased. These will work into a wall hanging. I might sash the blocks with a lot of green scraps. 

This was goal number four on my April list. I'm linking to Cynthia at Oh Scrap/Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework because my white backing fabric is leftover from a previous project.