This thesis studies how Web services can be applied efficiently in distributed embedded systems. The study is approached by developing a tool, which we name WSTOOL, for generating Web service middleware in the C programming language. An analysis of the differences in the semantics offered by C and Web services is performed, leading to a mapping between C and SOAP. The developed mapping enables a high level of transparency when developing Web services in C. After discussing the overall architecture of WSTOOL and the middleware generated by the tool, we define interfaces enabling the use of alternative network representations of SOAP messages. Additionally, a design is provided which exploits service specific knowledge to generate efficient middleware. Based on a performance evaluation it is concluded that the techniques used in the design and implementation of WSTOOL does help generate efficient middleware, when compared to alternative tools. The main contribution of this thesis lies in the design of WSTOOL and a proof of concept implementation of this tool.