Fabrics 101: Embroidering on Floursack Towels

Floursack towels are a great way to add a sweet and tasty look to your kitchen decor. Get the inside scoop on how to embroider the light and airy kitchen towels with these helpful tricks and tips.

Towels shown in this tutorial were purchased from Target. Other sources include Bed Bath & Beyond and online sources such as Amazon. The Aunt Martha's brand is a favorite.

Project Needs & Notes

- Floursack towel
- Medium weight (2.5 ounce) cutaway stabilizer
- Air-erase pen 

This project was featured in the following:
Let's Dish Lookbook

Floursack towels are light and thin, so choose airy and breezy designs. Light fabrics need light designs.

Vintage, toile, and Redwork designs are excellent choices.

Wash and dry the towels before embroidering. Floursack towels are cotton, so they will shrink, and it's best to get the shrinkage out of the way before stitching.

Cutaway stabilizer is usually the best choice for cotton fabric. But floursack towels are light, and may be transparent. Tear-away stabilizer can be used, as long as the design is very simple.

Use a good-quality tear-away stabilizer. Make sure it's soft and pliable. Don't use anything too stiff or rigid. That type of tear-away stabilizer can tear away in chunks, resulting in shifting, gapping, and misaligned stitches.

A template is a printout of a design, and it's an excellent tool for placement.

Print a template from embroidery software. If you don't have software, Wilcom's TrueSizer is a free program that can print templates.

Use the template to arrange on the towel until you have it placed where you want to stitch the design. Mark the center point and the vertical and horizontal axis lines.

Hoop the towel with the stabilizer. Line up the marks on the towel with the marks on the hoop.

Move the hoop so the needle is right over the center point.

Use a size 11 or 75/11 sharp sewing needle. A sharp sewing needle has a smaller, finer point than an embroidery needle, so it will make the smallest holes in the tear-away stabilizer. That helps guard against shifting and misaligned stitches.

After the design has finished, gently tear the stabilizer away from the back.

The result is stunning! And don't forget -- light fabrics need light designs.

At Embroidery Library, look for designs labeled vintage, toile, or Redwork. Those are a perfect fit for floursack towels.