Adorable Retro Kitchen Towels

Ever since Laney turned 8, I have been starting to pull things together for her hope chest.  As I was browsing the craft section in Walmart, I saw these awesome retro dish towels just begging for me to embroider them.

It didn't take me long to find these cute little iron on templates for hand embroidery.  Of course, you could always machine embroider them or use fabric paint or whatever method you choose.  I wanted the retro feel of hand embroidery, and fell in love with these retro kitchen designs.  These are pattern SR11 "Kitch'n Stitch'n" by Stitcher's Revolution.

Then, I set out to pick my thread colors.  There is a handy color guide inside of the pattern package, but I wanted to match the towels, so I just picked whatever I felt like matched.

In addition to these supplies, you will need an ironing board, and iron, an embroidery hoop, a few straight pins, and an embroidery needle.

Once you have picked out which of the designs you would like to use, cut those out.  Ironing will transfer everything on the paper, so be careful not to cut out any stray lines.

Now iron your dish towel to remove any wrinkles and prepare the surface for the transfer.  Transfers work best on freshly ironed fabric. (for best results, you need to wash and dry the dish towels before starting this project)

Pin the iron transfer into place in whatever location you choose.

Now iron the transfers on.  You will need to use a hot iron, but without steam.  Iron over the transfer for around 5-10 seconds, moving the iron constantly. When you remove the transfer, you will be left with a dark grey transferred design.

I'll be honest.  At this point, I seriously considered grabbing a permanent fabric marker, tracing these, and leaving it at that.  It would be absolutely precious left as is...BUT I really did want a finished embroidered piece.

It is important to remember not to use your iron's steam feature.  If you do, this is what will happen. As if my ironing board cover wasn't dirty enough.

Once you have your transferred designs, toss one of your towels into an embroidery ring and pull it tight.

Now begin working on your embroidered piece.  I like to do one color at a time for the entire work.  On this piece, I chose to use my green and yellow threads.  I selected a backstitch for the outline and a satin stitch for the floral designs on the bowls.

For the Cherries print, I used red for the cherries and words, blue for the circle, and green for leaves and stems.  For the Dab'll do ya, I used blue for the measuring spoons and yellow for the words.  You can select any colors you like.  These didn't turn out perfect, as I am not a fantastic embroiderer, but they turned out with the homespun, vintage feel that I was looking for, so I am SO excited about them.

I think the Mix it up is my favorite.  What about you??

Have fun crafting!