This quick and easy towel wrap will be a hit with any college age girl. It features her Greek letters appliqued and stitched in her favorite colors. Or make one using her school’s name or acronym. It is sure to be the talk of her friends. This project showcases the OESD embroidery collection Greek Applique Letters 1 #10224. Use a fun, colorful fabric and two colors of thread to cover the raw edges of the letters. I made one using a white towel with bright pink and orange fabric, and two different ribbons to accent the front of the towel. So let’s gather our supplies and make one.

Supplies

  • OESD’s Greek Applique Letters 1 #10224 embroidery collection
  • OESD AquaMesh stabilizer
  • OESD Ultra Clean and Tear stabilizer
  • Large bath towel
  • 1” elastic
  • Velcro®
  • Fabric for the applique
  • Isacord embroidery thread
  • OPTIONAL:  2 different widths of ribbons and ¼” fusible web tape.

Instructions

First, I chose my Greek letters and decided where I was going to place them, which was along the front bottom of the towel wrap. I used the Ultra Clean and Tear stabilizer to hold the towel in the hoop without it slipping. To use it, hoop the stabilizer with the adhesive side up, mark the front and then turn it over and mark it on the back side of the stabilizer. (Note: When the stabilizer is dampened with water the marks on the adhesive side will disappear, which is why you want to make the marks on the back side of the stabilizer also).

Mark the towel where the center of the design will be.

Dampen the stabilizer with a wet sponge or sponge applicator. The starch based glue will become sticky. Place and center towel onto the stabilizer.

Place the hoop on the embroidery machine and stitch out the Greek Applique Letters. Note: After stitching the fabric into place for the applique, I added a piece of AquaMesh stabilizer to the letters to keep the stitches from sinking into the layers of the towel.

After embroidery is complete, then remove the stabilizers from the project.

OPTIONAL: Prepare the ribbon accent by fusing the narrow ribbon on top of the wider one using the fusible web tape. Fuse the web tape to the wrong side of the wider one. Set aside.

Fold down the top of the towel 1¼” and pin. Starting at 8½” from either end, stitch along the bottom to form a casing. Insert a piece of elastic 20” – 24” using a large safety pin into the casing. Pin and stitch across one end and continue to pull thru to the other end. Adjust gathers. Try on and make sure it will fit you. Pin and stitch across other end to hold elastic in place.

Fold down the remaining ends of the top of the towel and stitch. OPTIONAL: Fuse ribbon into place along the towel edge and around the top and bottom edges.

Cut 9” pieces of Velcro®. Pin and stitch one side of Velcro® to the right side of the top of the towel. (Note: When the towel overlaps, make sure the applique is on the right side.) Pin and stitch the other side of Velcro® to the wrong side of the top of the towel.

Your Greek Applique Towel Wrap is complete!

This material is © OESD, LLC and may not be reproduced or published without permission.