Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Tea Towel Tuesday Tutorial: Give me Sunshine


Alison found a site.... To Dry For (that is literally what it is called..haha), and they had the cutest towels on there by Pintuck!  I adored them, especially the one that said, Give Me Sunshine.  I loved it so much I had to buy it and when it arrived I decided that this little towel was not destined for stains or dirty hands; no, no he was born for a much nobler cause....he would be my little artistic masterpiece! I mean come on, why can't a towel be art, I've seen some things in the MoMA that I stared at for thirty minutes and still couldn't figure out why it was there or why I was still looking at it.  

SOOOO, I decided to head to Aaron Brother's and take full ADVANTAGE of their buy one get one for a penny sale.  While I was there I asked how much it would be to have them custom frame my little ol' $16 towel.  They worked up an estimate and replied, "THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS".  AFTER, I picked my jaw up from the ground, I grabbed my towel, and my new stack of frames (well actually they grabbed my frames and loaded them up for me, which was very kind....having two crazy little ones with you while shopping does have its benefits), and decided I would take a crack at this myself.  And so I did.  And instead of spending $300, all it cost was the frame and 30 minutes of alone time while both boys were napping.  Totally well worth it, as every time I look at it I smile!!!  



Here's how I did it, I've included the steps just in case you have any towels or fabric laying around the house and would like a quick and easy way to display them!


Step 1:  Iron towel/fabric with all your might
Step 2:  Decide on your matte or background; I used the reverse side of the paper that came with the frame, what I really wanted to use was linen, but I didn't have any on hand, you could also use poster size heavyweight paper (when I want to do a project I want to do it right then, so there was no waiting for me...the paper actually turned out ok, but I may upgrade later on to the linen I had originally wanted).
Step 3:  I adhered the towel to the paper with an Adhesive dot roller, so that it would stay in place when I started sewing (it worked perfectly, and is a necessary step)
Step 4:  I picked a fun stitch, and brown thread and started sewing.  THIS was the TRICKIEST step, only because the paper and towel were so large, it would have been great to have someone on hand to hold it so it didn't bend as I was stitching it (if you're using a fabric background instead of paper then it won't matter as much if it bends while you're sewing).  I decided to make the stitching look loosey goosey, and not perfect, I thought it was more fun this way and went well with the towel...
Step 5:  Place in frame, and step back and smile at your masterpiece!


Step 4:  I picked a fun stitch, and brown thread and started sewing.  THIS was the TRICKIEST step, only because the paper and towel were so large, it would have been great to have someone on hand to hold it so it didn't bend as I was stitching it (if you're using a fabric background instead of paper then it won't matter as much if it bends while you're sewing).  I decided to make the stitching look loosey goosey, and not perfect, I thought it was more fun this way and went well with the towel...
Step 5:  Place in frame, and step back and smile at your masterpiece!

3 comments:

  1. Great job!! Love the new towel, so worth not destroying it with stains. Thanks for sharing.

    jessica

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  2. This is not a tea towel, it is a work of art !

    Love it, especially the stitching details.

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  3. That looks supercute. You would never know it was a tea towel.

    ReplyDelete