How to Make a Holiday Towel Topper

I spend a good portion of the holiday season in the kitchen. I love to cook and bake around this time of year, and things tend to get messy! Having an accessible towel handy is a necessity in my kitchen, and this ITH (in-the-hoop) towel topper is such a cute project, with its quilted elements and ornament appliqués.

This design is available for free! Download yours and stitch along with me as I make a towel using scrap fabric. You’ll love learning to embroider an ITH project.

Stitching an ITH Towel Topper

ITH embroidery designs are free-standing projects that are stitched and made in the hoop. When I started machine embroidery it took me a while to dive into an ITH project because I was intimidated by them, but as you can see in the video, it is just a lot of taking the hoop out of the machine and trimming between steps. 

Tip: Purchased a pair of scissors to use exclusively for your embroidery projects, and keep them near your embroidery machine so you’re not tempted to use them for other things. 

After my ITH towel topper was complete, I was excited to hang it in my kitchen. My oven handle was a bit thick, so I ended up having to move the button down a bit to accommodate. This was an easy, quick fix, and now it wraps around the handle perfectly.

Here is the sample towel from Creative Machine Embroidery Winter 2022, and I love the festive colors. I used scraps from my table runner project (watch me stitch that up!), so I have matching holiday accents in my kitchen and dining room. So merry!

You can also have fun playing with the thread colors, I love how this one features a red stitched border. Remember, because this is an ITH project you’ll want to use a matching bobbin thread. 

If you want to make this towel topper for any season, simply omit the ornament hook stitching, and you’ll have a cute topper with three fabric circles.

Happy sewing! 

Meg