Kitchen Machine Embroidery Designs & Project Ideas

Imagine standing in the kitchen making a nice cup of tea… ahh… relaxing. Your kettle is ready, singing it’s little heart out. That hot cuppa is so close when you suddenly realize you don’t have a hot mitt to pick up the kettle! A simple piece of cloth is standing between you and your relaxing beverage. What is a person to do? Make one, of course! As you look about the kitchen, you may realize there are many uses for decorative and functional embroidery.

Let’s discuss embroidery in the kitchen, which is a multipurpose gathering room we all enjoy! From baking to cleaning to safety, embroidery can play a part in your kitchen life. Let’s go over ideas for embroidery, fabric choices, fun designs and projects, and other factors to consider. Ready? Let’s get cookin’!

Kitchen embroidery can be both functional and beautiful, and there are many different ways to display these ideas. 

• Kitchen towels: you can embellish towels of every kind, including washcloths, hand towels, dish drying towels, and more.

Want to decorate your kitchen in style? Click here to watch our free Victorian Monogrammed Towel lesson so you can create your own personalized embroidered towels!

• Hotmitts: these are essential to keep your fingers and countertops safe from burns and scorch marks.

• Washcloths: though these don’t seem natural for embroidery, there are surprising ways to applique fabric to make great soap cloths.
• Roller towels: some of us of a particular age will remember linen roller towels for drying hands. They were a large loop of fabric hung on a dowel which you used to dry hands and then advance for the next person.  
• Tea kettle cozies: keep your ceramic teapot warm and toasty.
• Bun or breadbasket covers

Want to create your own DIY fabric bread basket while adding flair to your kitchen? Click here for a free embroidered basket tutorial.

• Placemats for your eat-in kitchen

Spice up your kitchen table with customizable and budget-friendly placemats! Click here to check out our placemat project tutorial.

• Pot handle coozies
• Cooking aprons: save your clothes and cook in style!

Picking that ideal pattern requires more thought than just the color and design. Because you handle these items, you want soft, flexible designs that can stand up to tough work and still look great because you handle these items.  

Smaller embroidery designs are usually better depending on the item you use because you want your “work area” to remain open for, well, work. Covering up the absorbent cotton of a drying towel takes away its chief purpose.

There are no hard and fast rules for your materials; use whatever works best for you. However, here are some things to keep in mind when picking thread, backings, etc.  

• Thread: Polyester thread is ideal for items that are used a lot and susceptible to stains. Rayon thread that is soft and lustrous becomes quite stiff when it gets wet due to the cellulose fibers’ swelling and tends to get fuzzy. It is also not bleach resistant and will lose its color quickly with harsh chemicals. Additionally, metallic threads are a thread core wrapped with a plastic or metal wrapping. 

Want to learn more about embroidery thread? Click here to read about the different types of machine embroidery thread and when to use them.

• Backing/ Stabilizer: This is an area where not having the bulk of backing works well, and using a water-soluble stabilizer is a great choice. It dissolves and leaves the stitching without a lot of bulk. No-show mesh is also a choice as it is less bulky and can stand up to washing without getting fuzzy. You will not want highly stitch-intensive designs on these items; opt for the more simple open choices.

Want to know more about stabilizers and when to use them? Click here for an easy stabilizer guide to make your next embroidery project with professional results. 

• Raised areas and texture: Textured embroidery, puff, and other effects are excellent on garments such as clothes. For any kitchen item you create, a textured design can be a somewhere food and grime get trapped. In this case, smoother is better.

Customize your next delicious embroidery project with the right embroidery designs! Make sure you purchase your embroidery designs from a reputable digitizer to ensure you achieve the best-embroidered results. 

If you’re hungry for high-quality kitchen embroidery designs or patterns, click here!

When choosing your kitchen embroidery designs, here are a few things to consider:

• Redwork – Redwork is a style of embroidery from the mid-1800s which created designs using a simple hand-sewn red line. Though these look simple, they are wonderfully historic and will add a touch of home to your kitchen and more. We won’t go into it now, but check out our blog on redwork history and designs by clicking here.

Interested in checking out our high-quality Redwork embroidery designs? Click here now.

• ESA glyphs– Glyphs are simply pictures (think hieroglyphs in pyramids), but the ESA (embroidery specific alphabet) glyphs at embroidery legacy are special. You can size these up with no loss of design, and the quilt glyphs work wonderfully for quilted hot mitts!

Did you know that ESA glyphs allow you to easily create shapes and objects at the click of a button? Check out our ESA Glyphs by clicking here.

• Seasonal – Don’t forget the holidays! And remember, COLOR! Having a special set of kitchen items you get out just for holidays, even if it is Groundhog’s Day, can be very fun!

Okay, now we can get to the fun stuff!! After talking about materials, items, threads, and more… Let’s make something! Here are three fun ideas for a quick kitchen project you can easily make, even using fabric scraps in your stash!  

Oven mitts or pot holders can be done in various ways, but here are some to consider! Because they come in all sizes, hot mitts can be made in the hoop easily with just a few materials. They require a backing, a filler like quilt batting, and a top fabric. You quilt them together using the glyphs mentioned above trim and add a bias tape edging. You can create some amazing gifts which are fun and functional.  

Want to create your own quilted embroidered oven mitt? Click here to view our free project tutorial so you can personalize your own oven mitts!

Using an existing kitchen rag, applique on terry or microfiber toweling or other absorbent material and embroider a loose geometric pattern. Remove it from the hoop and cut the toweling but not the base kitchen rag. This way, you have absorbent “fingers” to create more soapy suds when hand washing.

Create your own customized kitchen dish rag by clicking here for a free project tutorial.

How many of us have picked up a pot by a searing hot handle and lived to regret it? Too many to count! Did you know that you can create a handle coozie to slide on any size handle and keep your hands safe! Simply create two halves of the coozie and stitch them together to form a close-ended tube. Edge with bias tape, and you have a fun and easy safety tool for the kitchen.

Of course, these are only a few of the endless list of ideas you can make using materials you already have and the high-quality embroidery designs! Remember to make your projects your own by downloading your favorites, combining them, or digitizing your own unique designs using your digitizing software!

Interested in a user-friendly, easy-to-use digitizing software? Click here for a free 30-day trial of Hatch software where you use it like you own it.

We don’t have enough time to discuss all the things you can create but let’s do a quick recap of some of the main points we’ve discussed.

• Carefully choose your materials; make sure they are compatible with cleansers and durable enough for cleaning.
• Choose designs that are not too stitch intensive; place the designs away from the “working area” of the item so they are still functional.
• Consider making useful items that can be used and enjoyed as a gift or for yourself or a loved one.

P.S. Now that you have some great ideas floating around in your head, don’t forget to check out our high-quality embroidery designs to perfectly accentuate your next kitchen decor project by clicking here. Now sit back, relax, and sip that steaming hot cuppa!