How To Make Stamped Linen Tea Towels

The other day I commented to Gavin that our tea towels were looking very ordinary. It’s been a couple of years since I bought new ones. Some of the tea towels shrank in the wash (because they were cheap) and I put the others in bleach to get the stains out, not remembering they would fade. Bad idea! They came out looking worse than ordinary. Not like something I want to hang over the oven rail and show off, that’s for sure. The tea towels in our kitchen have a multitude of uses. They have to stand up to every kitchen task you can think of from wiping up spills to getting hot trays from the oven. So our tea towels need to be tough and washable. They also need to look pretty because they are always on display. Which led me to think, maybe I could make my own? Below, I’ve documented my process on how to make personalised custom tea towels. These are no ordinary tea towels. (Because why would I not make it more difficult?) These linen tea towels are going to be hand stamped. Which could be a disaster, but let’s find out.

Why I Chose Linen Tea Towels

In our kitchen, the tea towels are always on display. I use them as potholders, to wrap bread and scones and to wipe up spills. When I want to cover food to keep those bloody flies away, I cover it with a tea towel rather than plastic wrap. So it makes sense, that for our tea towels I would choose a natural fabric like linen. Linen can breath and will not make food sweat when placed over the top. Linen is also absorbent, so perfect for drying dishes. It dries quickly and can be used again at short notice if I hang it flat over the oven handle.

What you Need to Make Linen Tea Towels

It is reasonably inexpensive to make linen tea towels, despite any misconceptions you may have that linen is costly. To make my tea towels, I purchased one and a half metres of white linen. This will make six dishcloths. The linen I bought from Spotlight was discounted by 40%. Even at full price, it is only $40 to purchase the amount needed. Alternatively, you could buy linen or cotton tea towels already make. The ones I priced were between $15-30 depending on the quality of the linen, so it’s a big saving to make your own.

To make tea towels like mine:

• 1 1/2 metres of linen fabric
• cotton to match
• A set of stamps. I used Papercraft ones from Spotlight. These are the same stamps I used to make my Easter egg decorations.
• Inkpad in your chosen colour – I used Archival in Black
• Masking tape
• An Iron

What to Do to Make Linen Tea Towels

1. Prepare your fabric, and plan your design by testing it. I tested mine on a scrap of fabric to see how hard I would need to press to get the desired colour. This also gave me the chance to play with the different stamps to create a design I liked,

2. Divide your fabric into rectangles of the desired size and cut. I did this by measuring one of my old tea towels and leaving a seam allowance of around 1.5 cm on each side to fold under.

3. Iron the raw edges to form the hem on each side. fold under twice and sew. I mitred the first edge to get a flatter corner by cutting the corner off at 90 degrees.

4. After sewing down the hems on all four sides you are ready to stamp on your tea towel. Lay it out on a flat, hard surface. Make sure your surface is smooth and the fabric is crease free.

3. Secure the corners with with masking tape to ensure the tea towel does not slip around.

4. Ink your stamp, then press down firmly onto the fabric. Repeat until you’ve created the desired effect. I tried out lots of phrases in a few variations of layout. I quite liked the HOME SWEET HOME layout in the end.

5. Fix your design using a hot iron. I forgot to do this with my first attempt. I have since washed this tea towel a few times to test the ink. It did fade but only minimally. I think this was because I forgot to heat set it.

Uses for your Linen Tea Towels

As previously mentioned, I use tea towels for just about everything in the kitchen. They are used instead of a number of other items I could have. Here are a few ways you might not have thought of. . .

• removing hot items from the oven
• wiping down benches
• drying the dishes
• wrapping bread and scones
• as a wrap for a lunch or picnic
• to clean glass and polish
• as a food cover on the table