I loove looking through the kitchen towels at cute shops. Some of them are like little works of art, and I especially like it when they have cheeky little phrases on the towels too. Since it’s pretty easy to find a plain colored kitchen towel (heck, they usually come in multi packs), it’s also a good opportunity to make your own teal towel creation! I initially wanted to embroider my own phrase onto the towel, buuuut after a few hours of trying different ways, I just couldn’t quite get the crisp look I wanted, and then I remembered these iron-on embroidery letters I’ve used before. It turns out they were perfect for this job (and way easier too!).
Supplies:
–iron-on embroidery letters
-plain kitchen towel
-ric rac and pom pom trim
-iron
-fabric glue
First decide which phrase you want to use for your towel. I chose “Let Us Eat Cake” to paraphrase Marie Antoinette’s famous line, but you do whatever you like! Just make sure when you buy your letter packets that you have all the letters you need so you aren’t one “M” short later… Pull out the appropriate letters and lay them out on your towel, leaving room at the bottom for a few lines of trim embellishment.
Use your iron and follow the embroidery letter instructions to adhere your phrase onto the tea towel.
Take your fabric glue and glue a few stacked lines of your pom pom and ric rac trim near the bottom of the towel (use a few sizes and colors of trim to vary the look). Let the glue fully set, and your towel is ready to display!
How fun! This would make a great DIY gift as well since you can customize a phrase or color combo for someone special. This is a no-sew DIY, but if you don’t mind a minute or two of sewing, you always can run your machine across the trim at the bottom just to add some extra stability in the wash. I was just talking the other day about how I don’t remember the last time I had a big slice of cake, so maybe this towel is another message from my brain to get out my Dad’s favorite chocolate cake recipe soon. Happy cooking! xo. Laura
Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with the NEW A Beautiful Mess actions.
17 Comments
That quote couldn’t be more true! 😉
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
Haha, that would never stay clean enough in my kitchen 😉
Such a great idea!
http://objectsicantafford.com/
This is so cute! Thank you for sharing!
Xo,
Megan at Lush to Blush
Such a beautiful towel that it is hard to use them in kitchen. I will try to keep them neat and clean. Thank you for this.
Such a cute and simple DIY! Loving the pom pom embellishment
-Blythe
http://eleanorandemilio.com
I’ve bookmarked this, the end result is amazing x
Jessica — NinetyCo
This is adorable.
I also love cute tea towels. I have a hard time using them though, since I don’t like getting them dirty! A little side note: Marie Antoinette never said “Let them eat cake.” It was a false story told about other royalty before her as well by political opponents, trying to make them look insensitive to their poorer subjects (supposedly said when told the people had no bread). Marie Antoinette actually gave generously to charity and cared a great deal about her people. It seems a slightly vague remark in one of Rousseau’s works caused this quotation to be attributed to Marie Antoinette in a roundabout way (the remark wasn’t even about her). So, we can chalk the saying up to French political propaganda. I love learning historical tidbits; hope some readers enjoy it too.
I generally love ABM posts and find them very educational, creative, entertaining and fun, thank you for all that you do! Although, I find this post somewhat insensitive with it’s historical, political content and relation to “Let them eat cake” in our current divided nation. I realized ABM can’t take a political stance, although this post feels very unaware.
Oh my these are awesome! I love that you can just iron them on and look like a total sewing queen! The quotes amazing too as who doesn’t love cake!?
Beckie xo || http://www.thepaletails.com/
That’s so cute and easy to do! My ideas are already flowing and I really wanna try to do that.
That towel is so cute! I’m totally going to make one!
Paige Flamm
The Happy Flammily
http://bit.ly/2jEd6V2
This is such a cute idea, I love the pom poms!
https://www.makeandmess.com/
Iron-ons are the best for sowing duds like me!
How well does this hold up with being tossed into a washing machine and dryer? I’ve never had much luck with fabric glue holding up well. It’d be nice to see a follow-up with how well the edges stay attached after being washed and whatnot 🙂
I love a cute tea towel! Definitely just for display though!