Machine Embroidered Birdhouse Kitchen Towels

These fun birdhouse kitchen towels are machine embroidered towels with designs by Charming Station Embroidery.  These towels sparkle because of a secret ingredient!  Keep reading or watch the video to find out what it is.

I found these birdhouse machine embroidery designs while at a quilt show and couldn't resist.  I ended up purchasing the set of birdhouse designs and also some cute foxes and Christmas reindeer designs.  Charming Station Embroidery has hundreds of designs and they all sparkle.  Look at the end of this article for links to their site and these designs.

I decided to use the birdhouse designs to make machine embroidered kitchen towels.  These towels will make wonderful hostess, Christmas, birthday, or other holiday gifts.  I love giving embroidered kitchen towels for teacher gifts as everyone can use a kitchen towel.

The Charming Station Embroidery designs include instructions on how to embroider the birdhouse designs.  They have a Mylar Embroidery Designs page which talks about Mylar and how to machine embroider using Mylar.

The towels I used above have a pattern of blue checks and tan herringbone.  In order to use these patterns on these towels, a piece of blocker material must be used first underneath the Mylar.  Charming Station suggests using white Mylar, "Hide It", or stabilizer.  

I tried a couple of items for my blocker.  First I tried to use a layer or two of white cotton material.  I also tried using a stabilizer (either cut-away or tear-away) underneath.  I found that I preferred to use the stabilizer as the cotton was harder to trim and the finished product ended up with small threads showing around the edges.

STEP 1: Hoop the Kitchen Towel

Hoop the towel as you would for any machine embroidery project.  You can also float the towel if you prefer.  Remember to put a tear-away stabilizer behind the towel as your project will still need stabilization.

If your towel is fluffy, a wash-away stabilizer may be needed on the top, but since the Mylar will be there, it probably is not needed.  My towels were flat, so no topper was necessary.

Thread your machine with a neutral color or one that will blend with the design.  The bobbin should be filled with white or bobbin fil.

STEP 2: Add Blocker

If you need a blocker fabric or stabilizer, cut a piece larger than the size of the design and place it down on top of the towel.  Stitch the first color.  This color is the outline of where to place the Mylar.

Remove the towel from the machine and trim the stabilizer very close around the stitching line.  These patterns do not have a satin stitch around, so it must be trimmed closely or it will end up showing after the towel is completed.

STEP 3: Place Mylar

Before sewing step #2, place a piece of Mylar over the stitched outline.  Be sure it completely covers and extends a little past the outline.  Stitch step #2 and this will stitch an outline to tack down the Mylar.

Charming Station suggests to not trim after this step.  Leave the trimming for after the whole design is stitched.  I found that the Mylar comes off easily after all of the stitching is completed for the design.

STEP 4: Stitch remaining colors

Finish stitching out the remaining colors in the pattern as directed by the color chart. The machine will stop for each color change.

STEP 5: Finishing up

Once all steps have been stitched, remove the hoop from the machine and gently pull the Mylar back towards the stitching to remove it. If there are any tiny pieces, use tweezers to remove them.

Clean up the back of the towel by trimming any hanging threads.  Remove the tear-away stabilizer close to the stitched design.  If cut-away was used, carefully trim around the design.

Once your towels are complete, they can be used as kitchen towels, washed, and dried as normal.  If you need to iron them, use a pressing cloth over the stitching to keep from melting the Mylar or the thread.

For an extra special gift, turn these kitchen towels into hanging towels that won't fall on the floor.  Click our tutorial on Hanging Hand Towel with Kam Snaps to find out how to easily convert any towel into a hanging towel.

Other Kitchen Towel Projects:

• Turn any towel into a Hanging Kitchen Towel with Kam Snaps
• Make yourself some Un-paper Towels from old bath towels.
• This super simple Hanging Potholder Dish Towel takes a store purchased towel and a potholder to make a hanging dish towel.
• Make a Hanging Kitchen Towel with our free towel topper pattern and tutorial. 
• Embellish a store purchased towel by adding a fabric border to the towel.
• Holiday Crocheted Dish Towels - Free patterns for snowman, santa and gingerbread man can be crocheted to make super cute towels.