Daffodil Tea Embroidery Project

This lovely tea towel was created by Sally Red. Sally, many thanks for the lovely project!

A daffodil sets the stage for a lovely afternoon tea featuring free standing applique, cutwork and wing needle stitching. This beautiful tea towel is fun and actually quite easy to do in just a couple of hours.

In this project, Sally used letter D out of the Lafayette Cutwork Font and one of the flowers out of the Daffodils Applique Set






Instructions:


Starch and iron the towel until it is very crisp to the touch. Next draw a curved design across the bottom end of the towel and mimic the same line about four inches above this line using a water soluble marking pen. Cut off the bottom towel edge using the lower line as a guide.




Apply bias binding to the cut edge using your preferred method. Thread the sewing machine with matching cotton thread in top and bobbin. Place a wing needle in the machine and select an heirloom stitch on your machine. The one used here is a flower stitch where the needle backs up and repeats stitches poking a hole in the fabric.




Starching the towel will give the best results, as well as using a piece of lightweight tear away stabilizer under the towel. Just stitch along the marked upper line all the way across the towel. Put the towel aside for now and set the machine for embroidery.




Select an applique design from the Daffodils Applique set and hoop a piece of water soluble mesh stabilizer. Place one 5X5 inch square of yellow fabric under the hoop, right side down. Place the other on top of the hoop, right side up. (I like to also place a square of cut away stabilizer underneath the top fabric, as well.) Stitch out the design as directed, trimming away the top fabric and extra layer of stabilizer, and the bottom fabric being careful not to cut hooped stabilizer. When the design has finished stitching, remove from the hoop trim away as much of the stabilizer as possible.




Remove the excess with water. A bingo dauber is a great tool to run along the edge to remove the excess�just refill it with water! Press the free standing applique flower flat and set aside. Now mark the center of the towel about six inches from the bottom edge and hoop with a piece of tear away stabilizer.




Choose a monogram, such as the lovely cutwork one here, or consider the new Daffodil font set, Precious Moments, or Cherry Punch fonts. If using the Lafayette Cutwork Font pictured in this project, there is an excellent tutorial "How to Create Machine Embroidery Cutwork" on site.




Remove the towel from the hoop, and remove all traces of the stabilizer. Iron the towel flat. Center the free standing applique flower along the bottom towel edge and whipstitch in place.




The project is finished and ready to make even an everyday event such as having tea a very special occasion!