Handmade Holidays Stenciled Tea Towels

Tea towels are everywhere now with cool designs and cheeky sayings. Stenciling with paint is a cheap alternative to silk screening or iron on designs. This project was created (and images below) from these directions: https://makinglemonadeblog.com/diy-tea-towel-tutorial-stamped-kitchen/ 

Supplies Needed:
Steam Iron
Water for Iron
Linen Flour Sack Towels 28x28
Liquitex Fabric Effects Medium
Acrylic Paints ( I like Liquitex Basics brand)
Stencils: these are the ones I purchased
-Martha Stewart Large
-Phrases
-Borders
-Birds
-Letters
Foam brushes 
Paper plates
Plastic Knife to mix paint
Blue painters tape
Table covering (I use white tablecloths)

1. Start by washing and of course ironing the towels.

2. Prepare your paint on your plate.  If you have fabric paint, then you can skip this step.  If you have craft paint, mix it with a two parts paint, one part Fabric Painting Medium using the plastic knife.  It’s great stuff to have on hand, by the way– even though it’s white, it won’t change the color of the craft paint you are using.  It turns any craft paint into fabric paint!

3. Lay out the towel and decide where you want the design to be.  Unless you are doing an allover design, it might help to first fold the towel as though you are hanging it.  See which part is showing, and that’s the part you’ll want to paint.  Feel free to mark with seamstress chalk or tape if you wish.

4. Place a piece of cardboard underneath the fabric so paint doesn’t bleed through.

5. To stencil the towel:  Tape your stencil in place using an easy release tape like painters or masking tape.  Use a foam brush to lightly tap paint all over the stencil. Use a different foam brush for each color. If you only have one wash it between uses and make sure all the water is dry otherwise the water from the brush will make the paint bleed on your towel.

6. Wash and dry foam brush between colors and be careful to not smear the other paint on the towel if you are working on different areas.

7. Let dry for 24-48 hours, and heat set with an iron.