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.

Make sure to weave your thread ends in well so they don't work loose when washed. One way to start is to weave the needle into the part you are starting with then do your stitching over the woven thread. Have never heard of anyone pre-washing rickrack before. We are still using dishtowels embroidered 20 years ago and no threads have come loose, altho they are large cotton dish towels not tea towels.

Wow! 20 years, that's great news. Are they cotton, or linen? What do they look like? I did read to weave the thread ends 3-4 stitches. My first thought was I should tie a knot, but I guess that weaving works.
Also, I just check the package on the rick rack, it all polyester (wont shrink) and guaranteed not to bleed. I'm not going to wash it. It's nice and flat and I don't want it to get tangled in the dryer. I tested a piece of the red (wet it and rubbed it on white cloth), it didn't bleed. Attached is my pattern. The large areas of red checkers are applique. Am I getting in over my head? Is embroidery difficult to learn?

What's old is new again!

Is that a good thing or did I choose and outdated pattern? I think it's cute!

It means things go in cycles - it's very cute.

What was popular and "in" became "old news" - and then whatever it is/was is rediscovered and exciting and interesting again.

It means I'm older and can remember when people used tea towels, and can remember when they didn't.

I am so happy to see some of the needle crafts becoming popular again.

I remember embroidered dish towels - one for every day of the week - and I still have some of them and use them.

Bearisgray__That is true. I like the retro decor. I have some 1960s mid-modern danish teak furniture that a friend was going to toss out. He didn't want to ship it back to Germany. It's beautiful.

Your pattern is just too cute! As for learning to embroider, I'd start on some scrap cloth before doing the tea-towels, just until you get the hang of it. It's really not hard to learn at all. (I can do it!) :-)

I found towels that I had embroidered in my teens lasted for many years and they were used and washed a lot. :)

Have fun.