Table of Contents
- Why Embroider Custom Golf Towels?
- Materials You'll Need for This Project
- Step-by-Step: Preparing Your Golf Towel for Embroidery
- Machine Embroidery Process: Stitching Your Design
- Finishing Touches: Cleaning Up Your Embroidered Towel
- Final Reveal: Mimi and Pappy's Custom Golf Towels
- Troubleshooting & Recovery
Video reference: “Embroidering Golf Towels” by Kayla Crafts
Personalized golf towels are that rare combo of practical and charming. This guide shows you exactly how to place, hoop, stitch, and finish two towels—start to finish—so they look crisp on a golf bag and feel great in hand. We’ll follow the same method used to make “Mimi” and “Pappy” towels and highlight a real-world color sequencing mistake so you can avoid it.
What you’ll learn
- How to place and pin a paper template so centering is quick and reliable
- How to hoop a golf towel with tear-away stabilizer for a clean back
- How to trace on a Ricoma multi-needle machine to confirm placement
- How to stitch, trim jump stitches, and remove stabilizer for a pro finish
- How to prevent (and understand) thread color sequencing mix-ups
Why Embroider Custom Golf Towels? Personalized Gifts Golf towels are used constantly on the course—and personalized versions make thoughtful gifts for parents, partners, and golf buddies. They also double as small-batch merch if you’re making items for a team or family outing.
Add a Professional Touch to Golf Bags A name under classic crossed clubs looks sharp on a waffle-pattern towel. When finished with tear-away stabilizer, the back stays clean so the towel hangs neatly from a grommet or carabiner.
From the comments: Several readers called out how polished the finished towels look, and one person shared they’ve already ordered towels to add a logo for a golfing family member.
Primer (What & When)
- What this achieves: A clean, centered monogram or name with a small golf motif that looks tidy on both sides.
- When to use it: Any time you want a quick win for custom golf gifts or event favors.
- Prerequisites: Basic hooping and machine embroidery familiarity; a digitized design; a way to print a paper template.
- Constraints: The method shown emphasizes tear-away stabilizer for a crisp back and uses a magnetic hoop sized 8×9.
Pro tip: If your towel’s hem or seam is a little crooked, center by the towel’s visible folds rather than the seam. It matters what the eye sees when the towel hangs.
Materials You’ll Need for This Project Golf Towels & Stabilizer Choices
- Black waffle-pattern golf towels with a grommet and carabiner (remove the hardware before hooping)
- Tear-away stabilizer (used here for a cleaner back)
- Paper design templates printed from your embroidery software
Embroidery Machine & Hoops
- A multi-needle embroidery machine (a Ricoma was used here)
- An 8×9 Mighty Hoop (magnetic) for easy clamping over towel thickness
- Thread snips/scissors; pins for holding the template
Quick check: Lay out all items on a clean, flat table so you can reach template, pins, hoop, stabilizer, and snips without walking around mid-hoop.
Checklist — Prep
- Printed paper template(s) ready
- Tear-away stabilizer cut to size
- Towel out of packaging and unfolded
- Hoop, pins, and snips at hand
If you’re building out your tooling, a hooping station for embroidery can streamline repeat placements across multiple towels.
Step-by-Step: Preparing Your Golf Towel for Embroidery Unpacking & Design Placement with Templates 1) Remove hardware and unfold flat. Detach the carabiner from the towel’s grommet and open the towel completely on your table.
2) Find your visual center. With waffle-pattern towels, the folds often give you a clear visual midpoint. Align your paper template so the design sits centered between those folds.
3) Pin the template. Use a couple of pins to keep the paper template steady.
Watch out: A crooked bottom seam can trick your eye. Center to the folds (how it will hang), not to the seam.
Hooping with Tear-Away Stabilizer for Best Results 4) Add stabilizer. Place a sheet of tear-away under the towel, fully covering the design area. 5) Hoop securely. Clamp the towel and stabilizer in an 8×9 Mighty Hoop. Tighten the fabric by smoothing from the center outward to remove slack.
6) Confirm tension and centering. The fabric should be taut without distortion; the template should still look centered between folds.
Quick check: If you nudge the hoop, the towel shouldn’t slide. If it does, re-seat the sandwich and re-clamp.
Checklist — Setup
- Template pinned and centered between folds
- Tear-away stabilizer under the design area
- Towel hooped evenly and taut in the 8×9 Mighty Hoop
Magnetic hoops make this step smoother. If you’re comparing options across brands, the concept is similar to magnetic hoops.
Machine Embroidery Process: Stitching Your Design Tracing & Monitoring Stitching Progress 1) Load the hoop on your machine. Mount the hooped towel on your Ricoma machine. Keep the paper template on top for one last verification pass.
2) Run a trace. Use your machine’s tracing function to outline the design area. Confirm you’re clear of seams or edges.
3) Remove the paper template and stitch. Once satisfied with the trace, remove the paper and start the stitch-out.
Outcome expectation: The first few passes should land exactly where your trace indicated. If you see drift, stop and re-seat the hoop.
Thread Color Changes (and Learning from Sequencing Pitfalls!) 4) Monitor sequencing as it stitches. For the “Mimi” towel, the clubs and name stitch in the intended colors (club heads in silver, handles in pink, name in pink/white as set), with a clean finish in the hoop.
5) Understand sequencing dependency. On the “Pappy” towel, the name was brought into the design file before the image (opposite of the first). That changed the step order and led to an unintended color swap: colors assigned for the earlier design didn’t match the new layer order.
Pro tip: When you import elements in a different order (e.g., name first vs. art first), re-check your machine’s color steps before pressing start. Sequence changes can invert where a color lands.
Quick check: On your machine’s screen, confirm the order of layers for name, clubs, and ball details. If it differs from your notes, reassign thread positions to match your plan.
Checklist — Operation
- Trace confirms safe boundaries
- Remove paper template before stitching
- Verify color order on-screen matches your plan
- Monitor first passes for tension and placement
If your shop already runs Ricoma, you’ll feel right at home with ricoma mighty hoops compatibility for towel work.
Finishing Touches: Cleaning Up Your Embroidered Towel Trimming Jump Stitches for a Clean Look 1) Unhoop and inspect the front. After stitching finishes, unhoop carefully and lay the towel flat. 2) Trim jumps. With snips, trim visible jump stitches flush to the surface for a tidy, professional face.
Removing Stabilizer for a Smooth Back 3) Tear from the back. Flip the towel and gently tear away the tear-away stabilizer around the design. This leaves a clean back—no bulky square—so the towel hangs better from a bag.
4) Final check. Ensure no stabilizer peeks from the edges and all loose threads are gone.
Outcome expectation: The back should look clean and flexible; the front should be free of loops or whiskers from jumps.
A magnetic clamp-style approach shines here: the consistent hoop pressure you get with mighty hoop embroidery helps reduce fabric shift that can create extra jumps.
Final Reveal: Mimi and Pappy's Custom Golf Towels Showcasing the Finished Products The “Mimi” towel lands perfectly with the intended color placements and a clean back thanks to tear-away stabilizer. The “Pappy” towel finishes nicely too, but it’s a great visual reminder of what happens if you don’t revisit color steps after changing the import order of name/art.
Quick Tips for Perfect Color Sequencing Next Time
- Keep a simple checklist for each design: import order, layer order, and thread assignments.
- Before stitching, compare the on-screen step order to your notes—especially if you changed the file structure.
- If you batch personalizations (multiple names), lock down the art layer order and only swap text to maintain consistent steps.
From the comments: Readers praised the clean results; one person said they’re adding a family logo to newly ordered towels. The creator replied supportively that they’ll turn out beautifully.
If you’re exploring hardware across machines, note that the concept of magnetic clamping spans brands—similar to magnetic embroidery hoop solutions you may already know.
Troubleshooting & Recovery Symptom: Design looks centered in the hoop but stitches off-center
- Likely cause: The towel’s seam is crooked or folds weren’t your centering reference.
- Fix: Center to the visible folds, not the bottom hem. Re-trace before stitching and adjust in the hoop.
Symptom: Colors land on the wrong element (e.g., ball vs. name)
- Likely cause: You imported elements in a different order (text before art), changing the color step sequence.
- Fix: On the machine, reassign thread positions to match the new order. Confirm on-screen steps before pressing start.
Symptom: Back feels stiff or shows a big square
- Likely cause: Using cut-away instead of tear-away for this application.
- Fix: Use tear-away stabilizer for towels so you can remove the excess and keep the back flexible.
Symptom: Extra jump stitches across letters
- Likely cause: Minor fabric shift or unattended jumps during stitch-out.
- Fix: Ensure the towel is clamped securely and trim jumps immediately after stitching.
Quick isolation tests
- Run a trace each time you rehoop; it’s the fastest way to catch alignment issues.
- Do a short color-step preview on screen to verify the order before stitching.
Watch out: If you realize a color order mistake mid-stitch, stopping won’t “fix” the already-stitched color. Finish the run as a learning sample and update your sequence notes for the next towel.
If you frequently personalize towels, consider standardizing your hooping workflow with mighty hoops for ricoma to repeat placement and pressure consistently.
Results & Handoff
- Deliverables: Cleanly stitched name + golf clubs motif with a tidy, flexible back.
- Presentation: Re-attach the carabiner to the grommet, fold along the same visual folds you used for centering, and present.
- Care tip: Normal towel care applies; the tear-away has already been removed, so the back won’t collect lint around a stiff square.
This approach also adapts to other small gift runs—swap names and keep the art layer order stable. If you’re mixing machines in the studio, the same principles apply across brands that support magnetic hoops and magnetic-style clamping.
From the comments
- Motivation boost: Multiple readers loved the final look; encouragement can be the nudge to start your own towel set.
- Logo use: A reader shared they’re putting a family logo on newly ordered towels. The creator responded that they’ll look beautiful—proof that this method works well for names or simple logos.
If you’re testing different clamp styles and sizes, you might compare your 8×9 to other formats in the same family, like mighty hoop 8x9, depending on your design footprint and towel size.
Appendix: Mini Reference Materials and tools used
- Golf towels (waffle pattern, with grommet/carabiner removed before hooping)
- Tear-away stabilizer
- Paper design template(s)
- Ricoma multi-needle machine
- 8×9 Mighty Hoop (magnetic)
- Thread snips and scissors
Milestones to verify
- Template pinned and centered between folds
- Trace path clears edges and seams
- Color steps on screen match your plan
- All jump stitches trimmed; tear-away fully removed around the design
For shops that swap between machines, the same placement logic applies whether you use clamps similar to mighty hoop magnetic embroidery hoops or other magnetic frames.