This morning, now afternoon, I'm embroidering 2 very plush thick towels for a friend who wants to gift them next week at a puppy shower - for an Airedale puppy. These will be dog body/foot wiping towels - nice big towels. This is the first towel, second towel is stitching as I type. Many lessons learned on these towels. I've stitched on plush towels before but never this thick - too thick for my machine, almost too thick to get it in the hoop, brought some tears and hurt thumbs but I did it. Lesson learned - don't let friends pick out on their own item to stitch without approval. This is also an embroidery pattern with tons, I mean tons, of stitching so that brings many other issues up being on the plush towel so that's lesson two. This would be much more fun to stitch on a nice cotton handtowel. The stitching makes for a very thick embroidery, as in very stiff so that's the only bad thing. Another lesson - look at how many colors changes first - this embroidery had 36 color changes, meaning I had to sit here the entire time changing the thread on the machine 36 times - I would have still stitched it because it's for a friend but it's something to think about in pricing embroidered items in the future - all those thread changes take time plus I can't be working on something else while the machine is working, I've got to babysit it. I do base pricing on time and number of stitches but never on color changes as I haven't done a pattern for sale before with this many color changes. Many lessons learned today. Whoo Hoo - stitching just finished - second towel done - cute as the first.
It's cute! I love the color of the towel too. We have an airedale! Great dogs! :-)
ReplyDeleteYour hard work was worth it--the towel is just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWell how exciting, a puppy shower. Why didn't I think of that! On the towels, maybe next time a lovely smooth cotton panel with the design on it and then sewn onto the towel. That way when the towel wears, the embroidery design can be saved as a memento or stitched onto a new towel! Regardless, great job.
ReplyDeleteGood idea on stitching it on a separate panel to sew on. Hmm, wonder if the puppy will be at the shower or if it's arriving later - will have to ask my friend who requested the stitching. Apparently the new Mom had 2 Airedales named Stan & Ollie - Stan passed away so she's getting a new friend for Ollie who will be named Wally. Think I need to get my friend to introduce me to her and her pups at some point........
DeleteCindie, what adorable towels. I know that Susan H. of Thrums weaving would adore these towels too, she has a beautiful Airdale girl who goes by the name Callie.
ReplyDeleteI've seen pictures of that cute Callie on Susan's blog - I seem to know of a number of weavers who have Airedale.....such a small world..........
DeleteDoes Bailey have his own set of towels, embroidered with his image? If not, he may be jealous!
ReplyDeleteOh you just had to bring this to Bailey's attention, didn't you! I do have a golden embroidery - guess I'm going to have to do a towel for Bailey now.
DeleteSeriously cute!!!
ReplyDeleteOh, how nice! I know I would like one for Calli :) So maybe that would be a nice extra line to get into? Towels with various breed dogs? Maybe call it Bailey's Buds or something like that...
ReplyDeleteDog owners never hold back when it comes to spoiling their pooches!
:) Susan
I've learned the hard way that some things take so much that they're better gifted - no way to charge for that much time and materials.
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