skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Lately I have been making sets of wedding dish towels that you can see HERE and HERE. I enjoy making them and coming up with different color and trim combinations, but I was looking to do something a little different. It was my boyfriend's mom's birthday a couple of weeks ago (by the way, she is AMAZING), so I decided that it was the perfect occasion to try my hand at a new kitchen dish towel. I found the silverware image at The Graphics Fairy and printed it on to a section of a flour sac dish towel. Next I sewed (ok, my mom sewed) that piece to a full flour sack dish towel. I finished it off with a strip of burlap topped with a burlap bow. I really liked how it turned out. It was clean and simple with a country vintage appeal.
A couple of weeks ago I posted about these Anthropologie inspired wedding dish towels that I made for a friend's bridal shower. I decided to list a set on Etsy and offer the choice to customize the trim colors. I liked the random assortment that I chose but I thought someone might like to coordinate the towels with the bride's wedding colors or kitchen colors. Plus, it is more fun to change things up a bit the second time.
I was so excited when I discovered that someone had placed an order and had their own color scheme in mind. She requested a funky and fun combination of mango, light blue, dark brown, and citrine. I bought every roll of cute trim that I found in these colors and played with the different combinations until they were exactly what I had in mind.
I may like these even more than the original towels. I just shipped them on Saturday so I hope the buyer is just as happy with the results as I was.
Within my group of friends, wedding season is coming into full swing. I have 4 friends getting married between March and July so many of my recent projects have been gifts for bridal showers and reception decorations. I have previously made the Ballard inspired "mr." and "mrs." pillows, the Pottery Barn advent calendar, and the moss initial wreath for wedding gifts. The most recent shower I went to was a kitchen shower. Sticking with the kitchen theme, I decided to make dish towels. I am in love with all of the towels at Anthropologie (along with everything else in the store). The designs are all so unique and each look as if they are hand made.
First I bought a set of solid white flour sack dish towels at Wal-Mart. They were $5 for a package of 5 towels. I cut 2 squares out of one of the dish towels, each small enough to fit on a piece of cardstock computer paper. Then I taped the fabric squares to the center of the paper. Next I created my designs. I decided I wanted one of the towels to have an image of a wedding cake. I put my years of doodling experience to use and sketched a wedding cake. I scanned the drawing on my computer, printed a test sheet to make sure the image was in the center of the page, and then printed it on the material (taped to the card stock).
For the second towel, I decided to create a list of wedding anniversary gifts. I had seen this on one of the Anthro towels and thought it was so cute and actually useful. I didn't know what the traditional gifts were for most of the anniversaries so I figured other people probably didn't either.
Once I had both of the images printed, my mom stitched each fabric square on a dish towel (Again, I really should start sewing). I asked her to not stitch directly on the edge of the material, so that the edges would be a bit raised and have a shabby look. Next I picked out the trim at Hobby Lobby. I'm sure the employees were ready for me to leave because I had the towels and probably 50 different rolls of trim spread out all over the counter. After trying out a million combinations, I found exactly what I wanted.
So this project ended up being a joint effort with my mom; I was the designer and she was the seamstress. I wish I had taken more pictures of the process of making the towels, but for some reason, that sort of thing just slips my mind sometimes. I loved the finished dish towels, as did the bride-to-be. I have a feeling I will be playing around with more designs to make some more of these.
