How to embroider towels: topping, stabilizer and design tips

To embroider a towel, prewash it, lay a water-soluble topping on top so the stitches don't sink into the loops, use one or two layers of tear-away underneath, and float thick towels on sticky stabilizer rather than forcing them into the hoop. Choose bold designs with satin or knock-down stitching over fine lines, and stitch in polyester thread.

Why are towels tricky to embroider?

Because terry is a forest of loops, and thin stitches sink between them. OESD explains what a topping changes: with a water-soluble layer over the towel, "the stitches form over the top of the fabric, looking smooth and even, without sinking into the fabric." Towels are also thick and hard to hoop, and both sides are often on show.

Brother's towel guide adds a buying tip: "Good quality, medium thick towels are the best to use." Very thin or stretchy towels can be embroidered, but they don't give as good a result.

What you need

• The towel, prewashed.
• Water-soluble topping. A light film for most towels; Sulky suggests its heavier Super Solvy when "the nap of a towel is particularly fluffy" or the design is very dense.
• Tear-away stabilizer, one or two layers, or a light cut-away for decorative towels.
• Sticky stabilizer for floating thick towels: peel-and-stick or water-activated.
• Needle: a 75/11 embroidery needle for most towels; BERNINA's educator moves up to 90/14 for thick terry such as a hotel-style bathrobe.
• Polyester embroidery thread. Sulky calls it "the best choice for toweling of any kind. It's colorfast and bleachable." The thread guide explains why rayon is riskier here.

Step 1: Prewash the towel

Sulky's terry-cloth guide points out that terry is usually 100% cotton, so the towel, ready-made or not, should be machine washed and dried before you embroider it. A towel that shrinks after stitching puckers around the design.

Step 2: Mark the placement

Centre the design across the width, on the side without the label and at the end opposite it. OESD's monogram placement guide measures from the bottom of the design:

OESD itself calls these "only guidelines". If the towel has a band or decorative stitching, Sulky suggests keeping the design at least ¼ in above it. To find the centre, fold the towel in half and mark crosshairs. For names and initials, the monogram guide covers letter order and sizes.

Step 3: Choose what goes underneath

For most towels, Sulky's answer is the classic combination: "Tear-Easy (1 or 2 layers) on the bottom and Solvy on the top." Madeira's guide likewise recommends a soft tear-away backing with a water-soluble topping for terry. The stabilizer guide explains the types in detail.

There are three common variations:

• Decorative towels: a light cut-away. Sulky suggests a permanent stabilizer for decorative kitchen and bath towels "to help avoid the design 'balling up' when you wash it."
• Back on show or detailed design: wash-away underneath. Brother prefers it for detailed designs on thin towels, because small pieces of tear-away are hard to remove.
• Very thick towels: possibly nothing. Brother's view: "A thick towel does not need stabilising."

Step 4: Hoop it, or float it

Forcing a fluffy towel into a hoop crushes the pile. Brother calls the result hoop burn, a mark left "because the pile has been flattened," and recommends floating the towel instead:

1. Hoop a sheet of sticky tear-away with the paper side up, score the paper and peel it away.
2. Press the towel onto the sticky surface, smoothing it from the centre out.
3. Use a hoop one size bigger than you would normally pick for the design, as Brother suggests.
4. Stay with the machine. OESD recommends supervising any project that is floated.

Thin towels and tea towels can be hooped normally, and Sulky notes that a magnetic hoop can hold a towel without the risk of hoop burn. If you'd rather keep adhesive off the loops, Sulky's trick is to iron a light tear-away onto the back of the towel first, so the towel sticks to the stabilizer only through it.

Step 5: Add the topping

Lay the water-soluble topping over the area to be stitched and hold it in place with a light mist of temporary spray adhesive, as Sulky does. It keeps the loops down while the stitches form, and it sharpens small details and lettering.

Toppings come in other forms too, and the makers disagree about some of them:

• Heat-away topping: OESD and Floriani recommend their heat-removable toppers for towels, while Sulky warns that its Heat-Away film can leave little melted balls stuck in terry loops. If you use one, pull the excess away rather than ironing it off.
• Permanent topping: a topping that stays under the stitches for good, such as OESD's Top Cover, stops loops from creeping back through after many washes. BERNINA's blog notes this happens "especially if the embroidery is a monogram."

Step 6: Which designs work on towels?

Bold, solid shapes read on a towel; fine detail gets lost in the pile. Brother advises against dense stitching and large filled areas, says satin fillings beat tatami fills "to prevent ultra-hard embroidery," and finds that designs with knock-down stitches work best. A knock-down is a light web of stitches laid first to flatten the pile under the design. BERNINA's educator adds a warning: "Avoid designs with thin running or satin stitches."

For designs from our library, pick M or L for towels rather than S. In our designs the thinnest interior lines are about 1.2 to 1.5 mm wide at S, and when our digitizer sets up a design specifically for terry it keeps every satin at 1.5 mm or wider. At M and L, the same lines are drawn proportionally wider. Kitchen motifs from our kitchen collection and beach designs for beach towels are natural fits, and the monogram maker creates initials in satin lettering.

Step 7: Finish the towel

• Remove the stabilizer gently. Sulky warns that terry loops can snag when you tug the stabilizer; support the stitches and tear slowly.
• Remove the topping. Tear off the excess and pick small pieces out of the design with tweezers; Brother notes that the rest comes out in the wash.
• Trim jump threads close to the fabric on both sides, since a towel's back is often visible.

Troubleshooting towel embroidery

Towels are the perfect base for a first monogram, and the hoop sizes guide helps you check that a design with its frame fits your hoop.