I have never embroidered before. I bought supplies to hand embroider cotton tea towel while we are on a road trip. I want to use them and wash them. Are they washable? If they are, I assume I should prewash all fabric first. Do I pre-wash red rick- rack too?

Thanks for your advise.

yes, hand embroidery is washable, yes I would prewash my towels and I have never prewashed ricrack

ricrack! i am going to put ricrack on all seams of a quilt made with squares. not pre-washed. hopefully it wont' shrink much.

I've never used rickrack on tea towels, but I would prewash everything...especially red as it bleeds...and yes, they wash beautifully and I personally LOVE, LOVE them! LOL!

I would use woolite in the sink to wash your tea towels and stuff.

I don't know if rick-rack shrinks.

The packaged poly-cotton bias tape shrinks. (Ask me how I know!)

Actually, I measured it before and after soaking it in hot water.

My MIL made us some hand embroidered tea towels a few years ago. I wash them all the time with no problem. I don't know if she prewashed before embroidering. The red rick rack however, I think I'd prewash just to be safe.

Cotton tea towels do have a tendancy to shrink quite a bit -- at least in my experience. :oops: It would be a good idea to prewash them. As far as the rick-rack is concerned, because you're using red, it might be a good idea to test it's colorfastness since red anything is known to bleed. You should have no problem washing hand-embroidered tea towels. My mother used to make them all the time, and they held up wonderfully. :wink:

I have some with the counted cross stitch border that have been washed off and on for at least 10 years. The border area did shrink some in relation to the terry cloth of the rest of the towel but that happened before I got them...and happens to some regular towels too.

Its good to know I can wash them. I pre washed the towels and applique fabric (it's supper cute) I'm excited to get started. I'll wash the rick rack too.