How to MakeHand-Made Embroidered Kitchen Towels

Making your own kitchen towels can be a fun, enjoyable craft project. Kitchen towels are also known as tea or flour sack towels. Back when there weren't factory-made kitchen towels the women would make the dish towels out of flour sacks. The same women would hem the towels, use them hemmed or embroidery the towels.

Creating an Embroidered Muslin Kitchen Towel

Today you can use muslin fabrics to make the same style of tea or kitchen towels. You can find muslin at Walmart in the fabric department. You can also find iron-on embroidery patterns at most craft shops or Walmart.

Materials NeededFor Making Embroidered Muslin Kitchen Towels

1 yard of muslin fabric. The muslin can come bleached or unbleached. If you are not sure what muslin is, the workers in the fabric section should be able to help you find it.
Embroidery Threads. Embroidery threads come in what is called a skein. The skeins of embroidery thread come in 3 yards per of thread. You will want to choose colors that will fit into the theme of the patterns. For example, if you are embroidering animals or scenery, you will want to choose the appropriate colors.
Embroidery Needles. Embroidery needles are a bit different than regular sewing needles, but sewing needles can work as well.
A Hoop. You will need a hoop to keep the muslin material taut while embroidering so the stitches aren't loose.
Iron and Iron-on Embroidery Patterns. You will need a rather hot iron to iron a good picture of the iron-on pattern. The iron-on patterns will wash out.
Scissors. You will need scissors for cutting the fabric, hemming threads, iron-on patterns, and embroidery threads.

Directions For Making Embroidered Muslin Kitchen Towels

It is recommended to wash and iron the muslin fabric before using. By washing the fabric before use, you can wash out the sizing from the material and it makes it easier to embroider the muslin.

Cut the fabric to the desired width and length for your kitchen towels.

Hem the towels. When hemming the towels, you can do this by hand or with a sewing machine. When hemming the fabric, you can use plain style stitches or you can be creative in the hemming. You can use the different hem settings on your sewing machine to create a decorative hem if you wish to do so.

The iron-on patterns sometimes have more than one pattern to a page. You can cut the iron-on patterns apart for easier ironing. Once you have the iron-on pattern you want to use, place the colored marked side face down on the muslin fabric and iron with a hot iron. You may need to iron over the pattern twice to see a solid pattern. Let cool before you start on the embroidering.

Place the hoop that you have around the pattern and begin embroidering. Cut and tie off the ends of the thread so that your work does not come undone.

Once you have finished the embroidering of the pattern, you can rewash the kitchen towels to remove the iron-on pattern. It may take a couple of machine washings for the pattern to disappear. Do not use bleach on your newly created towels because this will damage the embroidery thread.

You can embroidery your kitchen towels while watching television, traveling or any place that you feel like working on them.