moamele

Painting tea towels is such a simple craft project, but will give your kitchen an instant lift! Making your own tea towels is much easier than you think.

Sewing your own tea towels is such a lovely craft idea for your home. Our step-by-step guide involves using a sewing machine, but you could hand sew your tea towels if you prefer.

Use fabric paints to suit the colour scheme in your kitchen for the perfect matching accessory. You could also experiment with other shapes than lemons to print on your tea towel.

Happy crafting!

What you need

• Lemons
• Knife and iron
• White cotton fabric
• Newspaper
• Fabric paint
• Paper plates
• Paintbrush
• Pins and thread
• Sewing machine

Best Basic Sewing Machines

Silver Small Sewing Machine

Singer 1306 Sewing Machine

Brother LS14S Sewing Machine

DONYER POWER Mini Portable Electric Sewing Machine

How to make your own tea towels

1. Cut a lemon in half. Use a knife with a pointed tip to gently press the juice out of each segment. This will help give the lemon prints clear, defined lines, otherwise they may just look like big circles.

2. Iron your fabric, then place it on some newspaper. You can tape the corners down to stop the material moving around.

3. Place each colour of fabric paint on a paper plate and paint the surface of the lemon with the brush. Then press down firmly on the fabric, ensuring you don’t move it around. Remove the lemon and continue with more colours, using a new lemon for each colour, until you’re happy with the design.

4. Hang the fabric to dry where it won’t get paint on anything. Once completely dry, fold over all the fabric edges twice so you can’t see any raw edges then pin and sew in place.

5. Some fabric paints need ironing to make them steadfast. Wash your tea towel before using it.

TOP TIP: Don’t leave the tea towel to dry on the newspaper as it will stick where any paint has seeped through.

Do you love crafting? Share your creations with us by tagging @primamag in your pictures on Instagram!