I love gifting handmade for the holidays! Not only does the recipient get something unique, but your investment of time and talent is a gift in itself. For our large extended family Christmas dinner we exchange small, simple gifts so I decided to hand stitch some holiday themed tea towels for extended family.
I found some retro-striped tea towels in green and red at the craft store that are perfect for adding a handstitched design. The towels are too large to fit on my cutting mat and too thick to fit into my electronic cutting machine when folded over, so I used an old embroidery hack along with my Fabric Quill and Silhouette Cameo 3.
Normally when using the Fabric Quill, you draw directly onto your fabric with either washable markers, permanent ones, or a bleach pen. For this embroidery hack I selected SVG files from the Foil Quill Holiday USB drive and arranged them in my cutting machine software. Then I placed a piece of tear away embroidery stabilizer and the washable Fabric Quill pen with the A adapter in my machine. The ink from the Fabric Quill pens is permanent on the stabilizer and makes the perfect template for stitching! After drawing the design I cut around it with scissors leaving a little extra around it.
After washing, drying, and ironing the towel, I pinned the stabilizer to it where I wanted the stitching to go. The stabilizer is transparent enough that I know exactly where the stitching will be on the towel.
I back-stitched the design right through the towel and the stabilizer using embroidery floss in coordinating Christmas colors. As I stitched I was mindful of the look of the back of the design as well as the front. Once I finished stitching the entire design, I simply tore off the stabilizer using my Detail Scissors to help in tight spots.
To wrap my towels I simply folded them in half, then into thirds, and tied some ribbon around the top. I made a mini card and pocket to hold it with the Pocket Punch Board. Then I added some hand cut holly leaves and berries that I punched out with my Crop-A-Dile Multi Punch.
I love how these turned out and can’t wait to share them with my extended family for Christmas! If your Fabric Quill project is too large for your cutting machine, this is an easy hack that you can use to get the same results.
Thanks for stopping by, and happy holiday crafting friends!
