Fabrics 101: Embroidering on Terrycloth Towels

Give your bath decor a splashy update with embroidered terrycloth towels! Learn the best how-to information for stabilizing, hooping, and topping, so that your embroidered towels turn out beautifully.

Project Needs & Notes:

- Terrycloth bath or hand towel
- Medium-weight (2.5 ounce) cutaway stabilizer
- Water-soluble stabilizer for topping
- Temporary adhesive (like Gunold KK100)
- Air-erase marking pen

Terrycloth towels have a distinct fuzzy texture. Choose designs with solid fills, like the one shown on the left, when stitching on this type of fabric. Avoid designs with light or delicate stitches, as those will get lost in the terrycloth texture.

Wash and dry the towel before embroidering on it. Terrycloth is cotton, and it will shrink. It's best to get the shrinkage out of the way before embroidering.

A template is a printout of a design, and it's an excellent tool for planning where to stitch.

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

Arrange the template on the towel, then mark the center point and the axis lines.

In this example, the bottom of
the design is four inches above the hem, centered between the sides

Cutaway stabilizer is the best choice for terrycloth towels. Spray a piece of cutaway stabilizer with temporary adhesive, then smooth the towel on top.

Use a topping of water-soluble stabilizer to keep the stitches from sinking into the fabric.