DIY

One last tea towel posting and then I’ll move onto another sewing project.  This time I made tea towels for my friend that lives on Lake Conroe so I went with a nautical theme.

And just want to say that there are NO sailboats on Lake Conroe.  But sail boats are a lot cuter than pontoon or fishing boats.

I pulled the fish from sweetclipart.com.  I couldn’t find a sailboat that I liked, so I just drew my own. Pretty easy with a ruler and a piece of paper.  If you want to use my rendering,  just click on the sailboat and print or save to your computer. 

I had purchased the Michael Miller nautical fabric to use in a boy baby quilt I am making. See those anchors in the upper left hand corner?

I did a quick calculation of how much I needed for the quilt and decided I could spare 5″ of it. I had some polka dot fabric in the same color that I had stashed away and used it for the back of the color band.

So here’s basically the same instructions that I used for the mermaid and flower tea towels from the last two weeks.  Only difference is the appliques and the size of the color band.

After washing and drying all the fabrics, I cut a 17″ x 20″ piece from Kaufman Essex Wide Linen then hemmed three sides (two long and one short) using the tutorial for clever corners from Sew4Home.com.  The towel is then 16″ x 19 1/2″ with one raw short edge.

The color band is made from two 5″ x 17″ coordinating fabrics.

The anchors are an obvious one way print, so make sure when you attach the color band to the tea towel, they are going in the right direction! Then I stitched the two fabrics together with a 1/4″ seam.

Center the tea towel fabric on the color band–there should be 1/2″ on each side. The right side of the anchor fabric goes against the right side of the tea towel.  Stitch together with a 1/2″ seam.

  Turn under and press the raw edge 1/2″.  Bring the right sides of the color band together and stitch 1/2″ seams on the sides.

Clip corners and turn right side out.  Stitch along the top, making sure you catch the top of the back piece.

Now make your appliques using Heat n’ Bond Lite.  Press onto the tea towel, stitch into place with a satin stitch.

Easy Peasy!

And here they are at the Lake House!

Next week, I promise, no tea towels!

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had stopped by the new quilt shop in Spring Hill but didn’t know its name.  I know it now since I received an email from Cari Lester regarding classes for the month of June at Bayside Stitches Quilt Shop.  There wasn’t a reference to a website but she does have an email, baysidestitches@gmail.com and (352)584-3743 is the phone number.  So if you are interested in classes or fabrics, you now have a contact. 

You may recall that I picked up a couple of different Moda fabrics while I was there.  The top was from the Chance of Flowers line and the bottom was from Mirabelle. 

I still had a few charms left from the Chance of Flowers charm pack I had bought at  Tomorrow’s Treasures.  So I was ready to coordinate.

And this is what I made…

Okay, you are thinking that I’m totally obsessing over tea towels now!  But I wanted to bring a small hostess gift to my friends in Texas and these fit easily in my bag.  And they are totally adorable.

Here’s the instructions, pretty much just like I gave for last week’s tea towels (and next week’s too–yes more tea towels!  Tea Towel overload!)  The big difference is in the bands and the applique.

I found this pillow on Pinterest.

And followed to the website, Don’t Look Now.  The tutorial includes a PDF for the shapes.

I made the basic white tea towel exactly as I did last week.  And I’m going to give you the same suggestions:  I wash and dry all fabrics for tea towels prior to sewing.  I also press at every step.  Press, Press, Press.

I cut the tea towel fabric 17″ x 20″ then hemmed three sides (two long and one short) using the tutorial for clever corners from Sew4Home.com.  The towel is then 16″ x 19 1/2″ with one raw short edge.

For each tea towel, from the Moda fabrics I cut two 3″ x 17″ bands and one 5″ x 17″ band.

Sew the long side of the 3″ bands to both long sides of the 5″ band with a 1/4″ seam.

Center the unfinished edge of the towel on the band–wrong sides together.  The color strip should be 1/2″ wider that the towel on each side.

Stitch together using a 1/2″ seam.  Press under 1/2″ on the unfinished edge of the color band.

Fold the color band up to meet the towel seam, right sides together.  The pressed edge of the color band should be on the seam.

Stitch side edges of the color border with a 1/2″ seam allowance.  Clip the corners and turn right side out. I used a coordinating thread to stitch close to the edge around all four sides of the color band. 

Pretty on both sides!

Now for the appliques.  I cut out a bird and a bunch of flowers, centers, and leaves and used Heat n’ Bond Lite on the backs.

 Placed them on the tea towel and pressed.

Did a little zig-zag stitch around all the edges.

Done and ready to go to Texas!

 Other tea towels that I’ve made and you might like….

  

 

 In last Thursday’s post “Works in Progress“, I mentioned that I had hemmed six tea towels.  The material was Kaufman Essex Wide Linen that I ordered from Fabric.com.  

I had been thinking about making some mermaid tea towels for a friend.  (I always have some project running through my head)  I had just run into Jo-ann’s Fabrics to pick up a new rotary cutter because it was on sale for 50% off. (I’d been waiting for that sale since I dropped and bent my last one!)  Terry was waiting in the car so I was in a hurry but I spotted that fat quarters were on sale for $1.00 each.  I saw a perfect piece for a mermaid tail then picked up a couple more coordinating blue fat quarters.  Everything on sale, and I had a 10% off coupon for the entire purchase. Yippee!

So I made these dish towels.

I found two steps difficult with this project.  First, finding a free pattern on Pinterest for mermaids that I liked.   After a few mornings of trying different search phrases on Pinterest, I finally found this one by typing in “Mermaid Pattern” in the search box.

The second problem I had was creating the face.   I tried using fabric paint pens–I am definitely not a painter.  Then I did some embroidery.  Still strange looking but I went with it.

Here’s the sewing instructions:

This makes a 16″ x 23″ towel and has a color band on the bottom.  I wash and dry all fabrics for tea towels prior to sewing.  I also press at every step.  It’s really important to use that iron to get a nice finished product.

I cut the tea towel fabric 17″ x 20″ then hemmed three sides (two long and one short) using the tutorial for clever corners from Sew4Home.com.  The towel is then 16″ x 19 1/2″ with one raw short edge. I like to vary the color bands on all my tea towels.  For each mermaid towel, I cut two coordinating fabrics.  One piece at 4″ x 17″ and a second piece at 7″ x 17″.

Sew the 4″ strip to the 7″ strip with a 1/4″ seam. Your color band should now be 10 1/2″ wide.

Center the unfinished edge of the towel on the band–wrong sides together.  Make sure you put the 4″ strip against the raw edge of the towel. (Not the 7″ piece) The color strip should be 1/2″ wider that the towel on each side.

 

Stitch together using a 1/2″ seam.  Press under 1/2″ on the unfinished edge of the color band.

Fold the color band up to meet the towel seam, right sides together.  The pressed edge of the color band should be on the seam.

Stitch side edges of the color border with a 1/2″ seam allowance.

Clip the corners and turn right side out. Stitch along the top seam making sure you catch both sides.  I used a blanket stitch for a little decoration.  Now it’s finished and pretty on both sides. 

Now for the applique.  

As usual, I used Heat ‘n Bond Lite.  On the second mermaid, I made the face a little thinner so she looked better.  But the black hair showed through the muslin that I used for the flesh.  Next time I’ll use a thicker fabric.  Or maybe iron on interfacing.  

After I pressed the mermaids onto the tea towel I used a zig zag stitch around all the pieces.

I’m a little disappointed with the final product.  But I share my failures along with my successes.  And I’m still giving them to my mermaid friend.