project // triple heart embroidered bandana towel

Show your kitchen some love with some new embroidered towels! You can sew these up with adorable toweling that looks like classic bandanas or another print. And to go with the banadana look, I designed a free pattern inspired by dude ranch emblems. I'm calling this the Triple Heart design, complete with my signature smiles.

My mom loves bandanas, and will often use them as simple cloths on tables under dishes and such. So I knew she would like this toweling. I got several yards to make several towels, but I may get more to make a table runner to match. It would be so easy!

If you're not familiar with toweling, it's 16 inches wide and comes with the edges pre-hemmed and ready to go. You buy as much length as you want. I cut mine into three towels, but you can leave it one length for a runner.



I'll show you how I made mine, but you can easily put your own spin on this project!

Here's what you need:

• Bandana toweling - 2 yards makes 3 towels
• Black embroidery floss
• Iron transfer pen and tracing paper
• Iron
• Embroidery hoop
• Embroidery needle
• Embroidery scissors

DOWNLOAD THE TRIPLE HEART PATTERN PDF

The bandana toweling I used for this was provided by Missouri Star Quilt Co., and they have it in several colors. They also have other toweling! Of course, you can also use pre-made kitchen towels. If you order from MSQC and use this link, you'll save 15% on most items while supporting the work I do. They have just added TONS of embroidery supplies, so you can find almost everything you need from them (they don't have iron-transfer pens to use with this).

Now, let's make some embroidered towels!



Pre-wash and try the toweling. Cut it into 24 inch lengths or whatever size you want for your towels. Be sure to square up the cut ends.



Hem the two cut ends, pressing/folding the fabric twice. I made my hems about 3/8". Sew the hem, backstitching at the start and end.



Trace the triple hearts pattern onto tracing paper with an iron-transfer pen. You can use another transfer method if you prefer, but on a darker, thicker fabric like this, I'd recommend water-soluble stabilizer as an alternative.



Press the pattern onto the towel, centering it along one hemmed end. Mine overlaps some of the printing on the towel, and I was fine with that. You can, of course, choose an area that is less printed (or use another type of toweling).



For this, I suggest using a large embroidery needle or even a chenille needle, which in this pack is labeled as a "chunky" needle. I love that!

These cleverly color-coded needles are from the Lori Holt Nifty Needles pack. It doesn't show what size each type is, but just seeing the colors on the eyes is so helpful.



Place the towel in a hoop and embroider the heart design with all six strands of embroidery floss. I went with black for everything.



Use back stitch for the heart outlines, scallop stitch for the mouths, and French knots for the eyes. When forming those I wrapped the needle just one time so I could keep all six strands and not end up with GIANT eyes.



Give the towel a good ironing, and then it's all finished!



I hung one towel unfolded on our oven and then added a second folded towel in the middle. It shows off the full bandana print on these towels AND adds some dimension with the folded one on top.



I think these are so cute for Valentine's Day, but also for any time of year. AND I got some navy bandana toweling because I think that I should make some star towels for summer. What do you think?