Embroidery - The Idea Room

Fabric Interfacing with Silhouette—Monogrammed Hand Towels

I recently received some of the new ”Sewable” Fabric Interfacing from Silhouette America to test out in my Silhouette Machine. I have been wanting to make some Monogrammed Hand Towels since making this stenciled hand towel for Valentine’s Day. I was initially planning on stenciling them but immediately changed my mind when the sewable fabric interfacing arrived. This project literally took me about 15 minutes to complete and I had all the products already on hand…Love it when that happens!

It was a really easy process. First I simply made an “H” in my Silhouette program using Times New Roman font, 4 inches tall.

Then I took a large rectangle of some black and white polka dot fabric that I had left-over from another projects {found at JoAnn’s a couple of years ago}, and ironed it directly onto the fabric interfacing {on the opposite side of the paper}. Make sure the right side of your fabric is facing up.

Then I took my scissors and cut out around the material and folded up the unused fabric interfacing and saved it for future projects.

Peel away the paper layer from the back of the material.

Then for the best part. Cut out your fabric with your Silhouette Machine. This is seriously so awesome! I think it has to be one of my favorite features of the Silhouette America machine.

To cut the fabric, simply place the fabric and the interfacing onto the Silhouette cutting mat. I cut mine with settings at a speed of 3 and a thickness of 33 and it cut the fabric perfectly! Oh man! I LOVE this feature! Where was this when I was cutting all those circles for The Heartfelt Wreath??

Simply peel away the outside fabric so that you are left with your letter.

Carefully peel your letter from the Silhouette Mat. Then I took a white hand towel that I found in a two Pack from Wal-Mart. I folded the hand towel in half lengthwise so that I would know where the exact middle of the towel was. Then I gently folded my letter in half and placed it on the lower half of the towel to get a good centered placement.

Hold your letter carefully in place and unfold your towel and you should have a good centered placement of your monogrammed letter. Iron the letter into place on the towel. This is a temporary hold so that you can sew it into place.

I sewed around all of the edges with some white thread so that the stitching would stand out a bit and made sure to back stitch to keep it on the towel permanently and securely.

And that is it! Super simple right? If you don’t sew on a sewing machine, this would be just as easy to do with some simple hand stitching! And if you don’t have a silhouette machine, you could simply stencil them with fabric paint or cut out your own letter by tracing onto your fabric and cutting it out with a pair of scissors. Because it is one letter it shouldn’t be too difficult or time consuming. These would be great wedding, shower, Christmas or even birthday gifts!

I like them so much I want to make one for the kitchen and some other bathrooms…and why not all my friends. This project cost me a total of $1.25…or the price on one hand towel…Not too bad…ehhh?

And guess what? As a Silhouette affiliate I am able to offer my readers a special promotion good only this week, March 21-27th! What is this great deal? Use the promo code IDEAROOM at checkout when you purchase a Silhouette SD, you will also receive one package of each fabric interfacing (clean cut & sewable) and a roll of white flocked heat transfer material for only $229. If you already have a Silhouette, use the promo code IDEAROOM at checkout to receive a 25% discount on fabric interfacing. But hurry it is only good through March 27th.

Click on button if you are interested in this promotion and it will take you right to Silhouette’s site.

**I did not get paid any compensation for this post. I did however receive some Sewable Fabric Interfacing to keep for my own and review. All opinions are mine and mine alone.

March 22, 2011 · Filed under: Christmas Gifts, Crafts, Embroidery, Gifts, Home Decor, Mother's Day, Sewing, Teacher Gifts, Uncategorized, Wedding Gifts Tagged with

Personalized Embroidered Hand Towels

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**If you haven’t entered the giveaway for the RecessionistaPary handbag, be sure to click here and enter!

Make a festive hand embroidered dish towel to celebrate the season…every season. Do you remember these handtowels I made for some friends last Christmas? Well,I just made a Thanksgiving version for my kitchen.

I typed out the word blessing and then traced it onto the bottom half (in the middle) of a flour sac hand towel with a pencil. I found mine at Ben Franklin for $1.50. I have also seen them at Wal-Mart, etc. I then cut out some material (the same material I used for my oven hand mitts) and applied the flowers as an applique to the towel under the word I had penciled on the towel

Then I placed an embroidery hoop around the letters and embroidered the word using a backstitch. I wanted the word to be thick, so I used 4 strands of the embroidery floss.

The fun thing would be to have one for every holiday and season. I had planned on making one for Halloween with the word Boo, but never got around to it. Since the flour sac towels are so large, I think I will just turn the towel around and add the Boo to the other side. Then you could use the same hand towel for both seasons. Just turn the towel to the right side for the season. These could not be simpler to make.

I have this hanging on the handle of my oven door and have tied a ribbon around it, I don’t have to hang it back up anytime the kids get near the towel (if you know what I mean). When the kids dry their hands on it, it actually stays in place!

If you are interested, I have posted the pattern I used along with patterns for Boo!, LOVE, and Gratitude. Click here for the downloadable version.

November 5, 2009 · Filed under: Crafts, Embroidery, Fall Decor, Gifts, Teacher Gifts, Thanksgiving Tagged with

Make Your Own Embroidered Hand Towels

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Make these cute, yet practical hand towels to add to the holiday spirit in your kitchen or to give away as neighbor, teacher or friend gifts. I made these for some neighbors and friends for Christmas this past year. But, you could put anything thing on these hand towels and for any holiday. I simply bought some flour sack hand towels from Ben Franklin Crafts (which they had on sale for $2). You can use any hand towel.

Then I got on my computer and typed up what I wanted to embroider, in a cute font, and in an appropriate size. I printed out the paper and then placed it under the hand towel where I wanted the words to appear. I traced the words with a pencil directly onto the hand towel lightly. I also found a cute fabric and then cut out a star (which was simply a cookie cutter I had traced), and sewed it above the embroidery.

I had never embroidered before (so don’t look too closely), and learned how to do a backstitch by watching this tutorial. To make the round little dots between the words I made a little french knot using this tutorial. They were seriously so easy to make! I kept one for myself and have used it so often that I really should make a new one that isn’t so seasonal!