Embroidery Instructions – Cat with Towel Corner

In-the-Hoop project

This design is stitched as usual and includes a special step where you add a folded towel corner to create the playful effect of the cat scratching the towel.

Colors

1. Placement seam - any
2. Towel corner tack down - any
3. Body - grey
4. Shadows - brown
5. Eyes - blue
6. Outline - black

Tips

● Do not hoop the towel, just float it on top.
● Make sure you can fold the towel before stitching so the corner looks natural.
● Use tape to keep the towel and its corner from shifting.
● A thin towel works best so the machine can stitch smoothly.

Preparation and Stabilizer

Hoop the stabilizer only. I personally use a medium-weight, nonwoven tear-away stabilizer for this design. Tear-away works great for this project, but you can also use adhesive stabilizer or any stabilizer you prefer, depending on your experience and what works best with your fabric and machine.

Make sure your towel is not too thick. If you’re using a home embroidery machine, a thick towel may get caught under the presser foot during stitching.

Placement

A simple way to position the design:

Measure about 4 inches up from the bottom edge and about 4 to 6 inches in from the right side.

This works well if your towel is similar in size to an IKEA tea towel (18×24"), such as HILDEGUN or RÖDSPÄTTA.

Embroidering

Step 1. Stitching the Placement seam

Hoop a medium-weight tear-away stabilizer only. Float your towel on top of the hoop and secure it with tape or pins to prevent it from shifting.

Stitch Color 1, and stop the machine.

Step 2. Prepare the Towel Corner

Fold the corner of your towel diagonally.
Carefully place the folded corner along the placement line.

Step 3. Secure the Towel

Use tape to hold the folded corner firmly in place.

It’s important that the towel does not shift while stitching. Using several pieces of tape works best. I personally use quite a bit of tape and pins to keep everything stable.

Step 4. Towel tack-down stitch

Stitch Color 2 - it’s a tack-down stitch that holds the towel corner in place.