The Perfect Father's Day Present

Back before Father's day, I was trying to find the perfect gift for my geeky husband. I knew I had found the perfect gift when I saw this on thinkgeek.com. I knew I could make one that better fit my husband for a better price.

I took our daughter shopping and she picked out a large, orange towel. I was going to use a beach towel, but we ended up preferring the bath sheets. After a bit of messing, I figured out how to flip words backwards for printing onto the sewable heat-n-bond adhesive. I cut the paper into 8.5x11 inch pages and printed it out on the paper side of the adhesive.

I ironed the paper onto the wrong side of my letter fabric, being careful to follow the instructions. Iron-on adhesive can be picky, so really do follow the heat and time instructions. I've learned this the hard way.

I cut out the letters, peeled off the paper backing and worked on getting the positioning right. I worked on the lower word first because I thought that would be best. Once I had that right, I ironed it down and moved on to the upper word.

All ironed down and ready to sew!

I used black thread for the letters, but orange thread for underneath so that it didn't show up too badly on the back of the towel. If you're doing this, it's important to have your tension as close to correct as possible so that the upper black thread doesn't show through on the back side. :)

I used a zig-zag stitch that was pretty close to the buttonhole settings. I liked it nice and close. Here's how the letters turned out...

The back of the towel.

And the finished front!

My husband loved it. I hope that I can come up with something as perfect for next year! But maybe some of you can use this idea for your husbands or dads for the coming year. :)

~Regina