Machine Embroidery on Towel Tips & Trick to Embroider Terry Cloth

The terry cloth fabric is easy to work with because it doesn’t stretch or tear. Once you master embroidering on terry cloth fabric, you can tackle many towel embroidery projects beyond adding a simple name or monogram on a towel.

Let’s Digitize All Types of Your Terry Cloth Items!

Terry cloth is a kind of fabric used in the production of towels, bath slippers, beach robes, bed linen for grown-ups and kids, children’s toys, and even bar furnishings. Embroidered towels are an excellent way to change up home decor and personal accessories, and they can also make beautiful gifts.

So, why wait? Give your bath decor and other terry cloth apparel a splashy update with towel machine embroidery! In this blog, you will learn the best tips and tricks for stabilizing, hooping, and topping so that your machine-embroidered towels turn out beautifully

In this blog, we will guide you through the process of using the branching tool in Wilcom so that you can take your designs to the next level.

You shouldn’t worry about the needles too much when embroidering on terry cloth. Use ballpoint needles, such as those made for knitwear. They separate the yarns without cutting them. Use a sharp-tipped topstitch needle for embroidering on dense terry cloth with a high uncut pile and a lot of synthetic fibers. A needle-like that would readily pierce the fabric, thus preventing the slip sewing. A new 75/11 embroidery needle is ok, but the needle size can exceed if you have a thicker towel.

The embroidery on the terry cloth can be done with any type of thread—cotton, polyester, wool, etc. Their longevity is what matters. The least washable threads are probably rayon and metallic since they react poorly with chlorine and other laundry-related chemicals.

When embroidering a design on a terry towel, try to choose a bobbin thread of matching color—in that case, the wrong side will look tidier. Keep in mind, though, that it will make the embroidery thicker. Use a regular bobbin thread (white or black, depending on the design color scheme). Its thickness will be determined more by the whims of your embroidery machine than by the characteristics of the fabric you have picked. Some machines have been known to reject an extremely thin bobbin thread.

Choosing the Best Stabilizer for Towel Machine Embroidering:

When embroidering on a terry cloth towel, the backing is used to prevent puckering and as the main fabric that will be hooped. Therefore, medium-weight tear-away stabilizers or wash-away stabilizers are highly recommended when it comes to embroidering on towels because once you have completed the embroidery, these stabilizers do not stay on the back of the towel.

In the market, you can find these kinds of stabilizers in two colors, black and white; choosing the color of the stabilizer depending on the color of your towel is necessary. For example, it’s better to use a black backing with a dark terry cloth towel and a white one with light-colored terry cloth.

Machine embroidery stabilizers also differ in weight. For the embroidery on terry cloth, use the stabilizers: 1640, 1650, 1751, and 1860. Use stabilizers 1751 and 1860 for the dense terry cloth with a high uncut pile, such as bath towels and bathrobes, and stabilizers with weights 1640 and 1650 are perfect for the terry cloth with a low uncut pile, such as face towels.

How to Machine Embroider a Towel or a Terry Cloth?

After having the necessary basic information about embroidering on a terry cloth towel, let’s move on to how to embroider towels or terry cloths:

Prepare your towel and mark the design:

Wash and dry the towel before embroidering it. Terry cloth is cotton, and it will shrink. So, it is best to get the shrinkage out of the way before starting machine embroidery. If your towel has a tag, remove it or leave it on the back, the side you have chosen not to embroider. Once you have prepared the towel, you must choose the placement of your design on the towel.

Next, mark the center of the embroidery design with your preferred marking method. A blue fabric marking pen is recommended, which washes out with water from the fabric after the machine embroidery.

Float or Hoop the Towel:

If you intend to hoop your towel, layer the stabilizer, towel, and water-soluble topper in ascending order, and if the topping won’t get hooped, you can put it on top of the towel just before you embroider. In addition, you can apply a thin layer of temporary fabric adhesive on the towel’s back to make the hooping process easier. But be careful not to soak it in adhesive, which will cause the towel’s loops to pull back when the tear-away stabilizer is removed.

If you want to float your towel, hoop your stabilizer first, then fasten the towel on top of the machine embroidery hoop. Many embroiderers prefer a sticky self-adhesive stabilizer for this work, but removing the towel from the stabilizer pulls the towel’s loops.

Remember to add a water-soluble topper to the top of the floated towel.

Prepare the Embroidery Machine:

Now, attach your hoop to the embroidery machine, check the threads and needles, and load your embroidery design. Ensure that only one towel layer is embroidered and no edges are caught under the hoop. Also, check that you have hooped everything properly. If everything looks perfect, go ahead and start embroidering your towel!

Clean Up the Embroidery for a More Glossy Look:

Once your towel machine embroidery is done, remove it from the hoop. (Don’t worry about the hoop marks on the edges; they will be washed out).

If stitches seem jumped, keep on and cut them off. Removing the jump stitches is sometimes simpler when the water-soluble topping is still on the towel. Then, tear off the water-soluble topping. To remove the tear-away stabilizer, gently tear it away from the back. It can take a little effort if you adhere the stabilizer to the back of the towel.

And to remove the wash-away stabilizer, trim it close to the back of the design and then place the towel in water or the washing machine to remove the rest of the stabilizer. Also, if you have marked with a fabric marking pen, this will disappear when you dip your towel in water or launder it.

After learning the major facts of towel machine embroidery and how to embroider on a towel or terry cloth, let’s get ready to learn some considerations you must consider. Machine embroidery on the towel is a delightful thing to do, but there are some challenges that you have to face, such as:

Not Every Digitized Design Can Be Embroider on Towel:

Terry cloth towels have a special fuzzy texture. Therefore, always choose designs with solid fills when embroidering on the towel. Also, avoid designs with delicate stitches because those will get lost in the terry cloth towel texture.

When digitizing for terry cloth towels, keep in mind you can only succeed in excellent results if you follow proper pull compensation, density, and underlay while digitizing an embroidery design for terry cloth. The fill stitches need to be stable within the underlay. This can be achieved using cross-stitched underlay rather than the standard opposite-direction technique. The design must be consistent and ensure it blends well with the towel.

Embroidery Placements on Towel:

Here is a perfect placement guide to embroider a monogram, an embroidery design, and add a name or an initial to customize your towel with machine embroidery:

– Bath Towels: The bottom of the monogram embroidery design starts 2″ above the center of the bottom hem for a towel with no borders and 4″ above for towels with borders.

– Hand Towels: for hand towels with borders, the bottoms of the letters start 1.5″ above the border, and for towels without borders, go closer to 2.5.” Center monograms in the middle of the towel or place them at the right edge.

– Washcloths: The base of the monogram machine embroidery design starts around 1″ above the border or 1.5″ from the edge of washcloths without borders. Put the embroidery design around the right edge of the washcloth or center it at an angle.

Hooping or Floating?

Hooping only works best for thin towels, though. If you can’t hoop your towel due to its thickness, you can “float” your towel or terry cloth, placing it on top of the hooped stabilizer. To stabilize the floated towel during machine embroidery, you must secure it using a self-adhesive sticky stabilizer or adhesive spray

Here are some of the best tips when embroidering on a terry cloth towel. Must consider these tips and tricks to make flawless embroidery designs on your towel.

1. Instead of putting your terry cloth in a traditional two-part hoop, float your towel. If you don’t want to damage the towel’s loops, apply your non-stocky stabilizer directly on top of the metal hoop, or use a metal hoop with a Light & Tacky Tear-A-Way stabilizer. To prevent the towel from moving, use magnets. Alternatively, you can only hoop the tear-away stabilizer using a conventional two-part hoop.
2. Use a water works soluble film on top of your terry cloth towel, otherwise, the machine embroidery stitches will sink into the loops if you don’t.
3. Select embroidery designs that are not too thin. Many straight lines will likely get lost in the loops of the towel even if you use the water works soluble film on top.
4. Always prefer using a matching thread on the reverse side of the towel if there’s a chance the back of the design will be easily visible.
5. Last but not least, keep in mind that all the details you get from other people are only guidelines. The project that you are creating is your actual experience. So if you want to use different products or want to use them differently, that’s the perfect go-to experience things.

Projects involving towels and terry cloth machine embroidery are highly recommended for their ease and versatility. We hope these tips are helpful when you’re looking to embroider your towels!