16 November, 2009

Christmas tea towels

In the last couple years I've become a great fan of the souvenir tea towel (dish towel to some), especially stylish ones. This first started when I visited Sweden and brought back a few and just treasured them so much I realised I was on to something and wanted to share my revelation with everyone! I've been planning on making tea towels for Christmas since about...January. I even bought a bunch of fabric so I could started in July and beat the rush. Haaaahahahaha... (ahem) I've tossed around various methods of doing it, ranging from full-on screen printing to freezer paper or contact paper on a screen. The simplicity of the designs changed accordingly too. Basically what it came down to was that the images I wanted to do were too complicated for freezer paper which seems to be a one-use-only kind of thing; but I didn't want to spend lots of money setting up a screen, or have to figure it all out at a very rushed time of year. In the end I decided to go with fabric pens and I'm really delighted with the result! The images I've decided to use are drawings by Hazel and this is how I did it:

First I scanned in the drawing and made them really contrasty black and white images with Photoshop. This made them easier to see through the fabric. I taped it onto a piece of glass and leant it in front of the window. If I do lots of these I'll definitely make up some sort of light table (or this one) so I don't have to work on a nearly vertical surface.

Tea towels

Then I placed the fabric over the top and traced the image with a fabric pen. Hazel calls these her "Cherry blossom branches", although I must admit I've cobbled together a bunch of different examples here so it's not exactly an original, nor are they particularly branchy-looking! The red just seemed like the only colour choice on the white, although a nice sage green would be good too I think.

Tea towels

The finished tea towel - well not hemmed yet!

Tea towels

The rough texture of the cotton I've used gives the lines a real silk screened appearance, which doesn't come across well in the photos but it's very effective. Mat couldn't figure out how I'd done it when I showed him.

Tea towels

I also did a straight copy of one of Hazel's family portraits, in this case all of us out in the garden. After I took the photo I duplicated a few more of the flowers to fill the width a bit better and got her to sign it as well.

Tea towels

These are so quick and easy and, dare I say it, really effective! They'd make great presents for grandparents or aunts and uncles and all your many friends and relations.

Fabric notes upon further experimentation

I did a second lot of tea towels using a different, lighter fabric and have the following to say about fabric choice:

Heavy cotton used above
Pros:
It held its shape well, no stretching and
Took the fabric pen well as it had a dense weave.
Easy to draw on due to dense weave.
Cons:
Possibly too heavy for tea towels but time will tell
Harder to see through to trace - need light source behind fabric.

Lighter cotton with looser weave
Pros:
Very easy to see through, can do on flat surface with no light behind.
Probably a better tea towel fabric, softer and more flexible.
Cons:
Very stretchy, doesn't hold shape well.
Shifts under pen point
Looser weave doesn't show pen as clearly
Much harder to draw on.

The search continues for the ideal fabric on this end, but it illustrates the importance of considering what result you want and what fabric will be both a good tea towel and easy to draw on.

24 comments:

  1. Oh wow - they look SO lovely & not at all like fabric pen....! May I ask what brand of pen you used?

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  2. Thanks! It’s just a plain old Crayola fabric pen. I did go and look for some proper Pebeo Setaskrib ones but red seems to be a popular colour and everyone's out! I don't know what the durability of the Crayola one is so I'll keep looking for for the Setaskrib.

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  3. Oh Wow they are fantastic. I've been wanting to do tea towels for yonks, hmmm must find fabric pen.

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  4. Jacqui these are so neat! I LOVE the 'cherry blossom branches'... hmmm me thinks I might have a go myself...!

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  5. I've loved souvenir tea towels for forever. Your towels are glorious!!!

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  6. I love the idea that you used your kids drawing instead of a regular graphic. It is so much more personal and means more to family.

    Wonderful project.

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  7. These are great! What kind of fabric did you use? Love the flowers!

    http://sidac.blogspot.com

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  8. These are wonderful. Great idea. I like the designs.

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  9. Is that seriously your daughters drawing that is spectacular!! I want some of her art!

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  10. These are really lovely, and I don't even know what a tea towell is.

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  11. Jenny, I used a heavy cotton with a coarse weave. It's almost a canvas so verging on a little stiff for a tea towel but I'm assuming it'll soften somewhat after a few washes. I also have some linen that I'm going to try out as well.

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  12. Great Project. I love both of your drawings! Another project I want to try!

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  13. lovely! have you looked at Lena Corwin's book on printing (I'm sure you have, but if not, it's full of great advice about print-making, mostly onto fabric).

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  14. Oh Jacqui, these are beautiful! I love the idea, and what grandparent wouldn't love something like this? It's beautiful, useful art. I'll take this idea & make some for the grandparents for sure!

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  15. Great project! Adorable designs.

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  16. Oh Jacqui thank you thank you thank you!! I have been racking me brain for something ofr the kids to do as Christmas presents for the grandparents and at this late stage was beginning to despair, when I discovered your blog (for a completely different thing), got sucked in and voila - idea central and all of a sudden you have saved Christmas and are my favourite person of the day!!! woop! (sheesh, lucky i'm not overly melodramatic!) Off to corral 2 3 year olds for a drawing session! Will let you know how it goes...

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  17. Thanks for sharing. This is so nice :)

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  18. I love this project! Could you use the softer, thinner fabric but put some of that iron-on, water-soluble backing to give the fabric a little extra stiffness while you're drawing? Then you could just wash it away when you're done. You'd still need a light table but it might make it easier to draw designs on the towel fabric.

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  19. Oh wow. . . I have some tea towels that I planned to use a MUCH more elaborate process to get my kiddo's art on. This is so much easier and super cute/pretty too. Sometimes the simplest methods are the best! I can't wait to try it out. Thanks.

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  20. Chris - yes that's a great idea! I had thought of freezer paper ironed to the back, but the water-soluble backing would be a bit more porous and less likely to cause the colours to bleed.

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  21. This must be the year of the tea towel. I made mine reversible, from homespun plaids, with each being a fat quarter (18"x 22") and added about 5 inches to each end as a contrasting "cuff" - of course much of that was taken up with a French/flat felled seam and hemming... May I ask what size you made yours?

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  22. Bobbie, my tea towels ended up being a bit variable in size because the fabrics I used were different widths; but they were fairly standard sizes, so around 47x67cm?

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