Bulk Embroidery Walkthrough: 40 ‘Holiday Baking Crew’ Tea Towels in a Day

Video reference: “A Busy Day Embroidering Holiday Baking Crew Tea Towels and Making Tutus” by

If you’ve ever wondered how to turn a big embroidery order in a single day—without chaos—this walkthrough shows the exact rhythm. Two Brother machines, a reliable heat press, and a smart packaging line take you from first hoop to final mailer.

What you’ll learn

• A practical dual-machine workflow to complete 40 tea towels in one focused day

• How to pace hooping, color changes, and stabilizer removal so nothing bottlenecks

• The precise finishing routine: heat press at 300° and stack for crisp results

• Packaging that protects stitches and looks professional for shipment

Primer (What & When) Bulk runs get easier when you control the pace and the handoffs. Here, the goal is 40 “Holiday Baking Crew” tea towels in a craft room outfitted with two Brother embroidery machines—one single-needle Innov-ís and one multi-needle Entrepreneur Pro X. The tea towels are white, stabilized for embroidery, and finished with a heat press before packaging.

When this process shines

• You have multiple identical items to stitch (same design, consistent placement).

• You can dedicate one machine to run continuously while the other covers overflow.

• You plan a single finishing pass (stabilizer removal + pressing) to avoid rework.

Constraints and prerequisites

• Comfort with hooping tea towels and handling thread changes.

• Ability to monitor progress across machines (glance checks and audible cues).

• Familiarity with a heat press at 300° for textile finishing.

Pro tip Use the multi-needle for color-heavy passes and keep the single-needle on simpler segments to reduce thread-change delays.

Watch out Embroidery machines have pinch-hazard areas; keep fingers clear during operation and mind any magnetic accessories near items like credit cards. Heat presses have hot surfaces—assume it’s hot if it’s on.

Prep Tools and equipment

• Brother Innov-ís embroidery machine (single needle)

• Brother Entrepreneur Pro X (multi-needle)

• Heat press (FancierStudio), set to 300° for finishing

• Embroidery hoops appropriate for tea towels

• Scissors for trimming

• Headphones (optional for noise)

Materials

• White tea towels

• Tear-away stabilizer (removed after stitching)

• Embroidery thread in multiple colors (e.g., red, green)

• Clear plastic bags

• Poly mailers (pink, blue, brown, white)

Workspace

• Craft room with both machines set up and a nearby pressing station

• Shipping supply station with mailers and clear bags

Files

• “Holiday Baking Crew” embroidery design

Community note on towels Several readers point to flour sack towels as the base. One community reply: “Flour Sack Towels. You can find them anywhere.” If you’re testing a new towel source, stitch one sample first to confirm how it handles stabilizer and pressing. embroidery magnetic hoops

Quick check

• Design loads correctly on both machines

• Hoops match towel size and placement

• Tear-away stabilizer cut to fit the hoop area

• Heat press preheats to 300°

Prep checklist

• Machines powered and threaded

• Towels and stabilizer staged in stacks

• Clear bags and mailers opened and within reach

- Heat press on and warming to 300°

Setup Dual-machine strategy

• Single-needle Innov-ís: useful for steady, unattended sections once started.

• Multi-needle Entrepreneur Pro X: ideal for the full “Holiday Baking Crew” pass, including multi-color elements, so color changes don’t slow you down.

Why this works Parallelizing jobs balances time: while the multi-needle runs, you hoop the next towel or prep finished pieces for pressing. The single-needle adds throughput without competing for thread change time.

Placement and hooping

• Center the towel area to be stitched and secure tear-away stabilizer behind it.

• Confirm that the presser foot clears any towel hems or folds to avoid drag.

Threading rationales

• Load commonly used colors on the multi-needle so the heaviest color changes run without stopping.

- Keep a bright contrast color on the single-needle for elements that must pop (e.g., red text or accents) so you can validate visibility at a glance.

Decision point

• If your design has many color changes: prioritize the multi-needle for the complete design.

- If your design is color-simple: let the single-needle handle more runs and reserve the multi-needle for queues to avoid idle time.

Setup checklist

• Hoops ready with tear-away

• Design positioned and centered on both machines

• Threads loaded for anticipated color order

- Waste bin or tray ready for trimmings

Operation / Steps Step 1: Start the first two towels 1) Hoop towel #1 with tear-away; load the design on the multi-needle and begin stitching. 2) Hoop towel #2 for the single-needle; start a portion of the design that is clean to monitor (e.g., a text pass or accent motif). This staggers finishes so you’re not unhooping two towels at once.

Expected result: Two machines running, each at a different point in the sequence. Your next action is already in sight: re-hoop for the next cycles.

Step 2: Build the cadence 3) While the multi-needle runs, prepare the next towel for the single-needle. 4) As each towel completes, immediately unhoop, inspect the top stitching, and stage it for stabilizer removal. 5) Keep a running stack of “ready for pressing” towels so the heat press can run in batches later.

Quick check

• Is the stitch path clean (no looping/flagging)?

• Are small elements like stars and whisk details crisp? If not, check hoop tension and stabilizer coverage.

Step 3: Multitask without losing the thread 6) Light tasks—like tidying, answering a live chat, or prepping tutu materials—fit between embroidery checks, not during critical thread changes or color swaps. Maintain line-of-sight to the needles and listen for tone changes that suggest a thread break.

Watch out Noise fatigue is real. Headphones or ear protection can help, but keep volume low enough to hear machine alerts.

Step 4: Finish the final passes 7) As you near the end (towel #40), confirm the last towel’s progress on the multi-needle display—ensure the final characters and dots in the text render cleanly. 8) Queue the last towel on the single-needle only if it won’t push the finishing into a bottleneck; it’s okay to let one machine idle while you finish clean-up.

Step 5: Remove stabilizer 9) From the back of each towel, peel away the tear-away stabilizer. Support from the front with your palm so you don’t stress the stitches. 10) Remove any visible fuzz left from the perforations. Stage the towels flat for pressing.

Step 6: Heat press at 300° 11) With the FancierStudio heat press set to 300°, give each towel a quick press to flatten fibers and set the stitches visually. This step gives a crisp, professional look to the “Holiday Baking Crew” design. 12) Stack the pressed towels neatly so edges align.

Expected result: A uniform stack of crisp, flat towels with consistent sheen and legible details.

Step 7: Package for shipping 13) Fold each towel consistently, slide into a clear plastic bag, and seal. 14) Place bagged towels into poly mailers (choose your preferred color). Keep counts visible so you can confirm quantity before sealing.

Operation checklist

• Two machines running at offset intervals

• Stabilizer removal station set up

• Heat press preheated and towels pressed in batches

- Tally: 40 towels complete and packaged

Quality Checks Stitch integrity

• Text: clean edges, no pulled corners or leaning letters

• Motifs: even fill, no bird’s nests on the back

• Back: residual stabilizer fully removed around lettering and motifs

Pressing quality

• Surface lies flat; no scorch marks

• No transferred lint or debris after press (wipe platen between batches if needed)

Packaging quality

• Fold lines consistent; design centered in the bag window

• Mailers sealed cleanly; count double-checked against the order

Quick check If you see rippling around text after pressing, confirm stabilizer removal (tiny remnants can hold tension). Re-press gently after a quick cleanup pass.

Results & Handoff Deliverables

• 40 embroidered “Holiday Baking Crew” tea towels

• Each towel stabilized during stitching, de-stabilized, pressed at 300°, folded, bagged, and placed in color-coded mailers

Handoff tips

• Keep one “show sample” out of the bag for quick customer confirmation when needed.

• Photograph the final stack for records and marketing.

Throughput snapshot The day begins with 12 completed; by maintaining two machines and a single pressing batch flow, the order hits 40 with a clean finish and all items packaged.

Troubleshooting & Recovery Symptom: Frayed edges on lettering

• Likely cause: Inadequate hoop tension or stabilizer shifting

• Fix: Re-hoop with firmer tension; ensure tear-away fully spans the stitch area

Symptom: Small dots or punctuation incomplete

• Likely cause: Thread path hiccup during tiny details

• Fix: Re-run only the affected segment if your machine supports it, or restitch the small element carefully

Symptom: Wavy fabric after pressing

• Likely cause: Residual stabilizer or uneven pressure

• Fix: Remove remaining bits of tear-away; re-press with even pressure at 300°

Symptom: Workflow stalls during thread changes on the single-needle

• Likely cause: Color-heavy design slowing the single-needle

• Fix: Shift full-design runs to the multi-needle; reserve simpler passes for the single-needle

Symptom: Room feels cluttered mid-run

• Likely cause: Trimmings and packaging piling up between cycles

• Fix: Insert fast tidy breaks when both machines are mid-pass; keep trash and bagging stations within one step

From the comments

• What stabilizer is used? Tear-away is used and removed after stitching.

• What towels are these? Community replies point to flour sack towels, widely available.

• Do you wash towels first? The source doesn’t show pre-washing, so no confirmation.

• Do you remove all the tear-away? Yes—remove it from the back once stitching is complete.

• Which Juki for tutus? Model not shown in the source.

Helpful add-ons readers often ask about (not required for this project) If you’re optimizing your own setup, you’ll see frequent discussion around specialty hoop accessories. They’re not used in this workflow, but terms you might encounter when researching include hoopmaster, magnetic hoops, and hooping stations. For certain Brother models, people also explore brother magnetic embroidery hoops and magnetic embroidery hoops for brother. If you work on multi-needle lines similar to the Entrepreneur Pro X, you may also hear about brother pr1055x accessories. Finally, if you run smaller single-needle projects, you might come across brother 5x7 magnetic hoop discussions.

What success looks like

• Two machines humming with offset finish times

• A final stack of 40 towels: sharp text, smooth fills, flat finish

• A clean bench, sealed mailers, and a ready-to-ship batch marked complete