Freestanding Cutwork Project

Working on a new collection had given me an idea, which I wish I had worked more upon, when I was creating the Vintage Borders I collection. The idea is so simple yet has a lot of possibilities.

One of my worst nightmares in machine embroidery is embroidering upon thick towels. As much as I love the idea of embroidery on towels, I have to admit, it requires special handling. The design must be of low count otherwise one will have a wavy effect once the towel is washed. Another thing is to use tulle (very light weight and of matching color) on top of the towel so the design won’t sink through the heavy pile, especially after washing. Well, these are both doable things but there are times I want to use designs that are extremely light weight and have a lot of vines etc. The only way to embellish them to a towel is by using a piece of fabric which will be attached to the towel as a border. Attaching the border must be precise at the top and bottom, otherwise you get a bit of a poof on the back side of the towel. In other words, great TLC is required.

The towel shown to the side is a rather thick hand towel which I embellished using two designs from Vintage Borders I collection. All one does is to create a freestanding cutwork fabric border with designs on both sides and then simply tack onto the towel!

The process is extremely simple and easy and I kind of kicked myself as to why I had never tried it before. The technique allows one to not only embellish towels but also bedsheets, pillow cases, table cloths etc. any item which needs a border embellishment. Moreover, one can change the look of the decor simply by removing the freestanding cutwork border and exchanging it with another.

My first attempt was to stitch out the designs on organza. The organza I selected was the same color as the towel and very light weight. Well….it didn’t work! All fabrics do shrink and I had not considered the factor when embroidering. Next I selected the lightest piece of matching colored muslin I could find and prewashed it and the towel. The result….is shown above. The edge cutwork design was stitched out four times on one side and four times on the other side with a medallion design stitched in the center. The designs were stitched using water soluble stabilizer and I had about 19″ of the cutwork border fabric.  This can now be tacked to the towel using the sewing machine. I am excited with this method and can forsee many many items that can be decorated in this way.