Whale Shark Towel

A friend asked if I could decorate a towel with the image of one of his favorite sea creatures -- the whale shark.

He already had a design, but it required a little modification to eliminate extraneous background items.   The towel came from Walmart.  I chose a blue one, because this is a creature of the open ocean.

To work with a loopy fabric like terry cloth, you need to use not just a stabilizer, but also a topper, to keep the loops matted down while you stitch.  It's also necessary to use water soluble materials, so that you can just wash them away once the embroidery is done.  I chose to use the fibrous Rinse Away Mesh from Embellish on the bottom.  This wonderful stabilizer stands up well to a lot needle punches.  On the top, I used Ultra Solvy by Sulky.  It's a lot heavier than you'd typically use for a topper, but I have plenty of it left over from other projects.  It turned out to be very helpful to use this material after I accidentally started stitching the whale shark upside down -- the heavy topper made it possible to rip out those stitches!

Here's the bottom of the embroidery hoop, with the Rinse Away Mesh.

Here's the beginning of the stitch out, showing the Ultra Solvy.

Since this embroidery will be seen from both sides, I used the same thread in the needle and in the bobbin.  This is the underside, with a few wisps of the the Rise Away Mesh still around the design.  A trip through a sink full of water made that go away.

Come back next week for a project for your sewing room!