CM Tea Towel SWAP - mine!

This is my tea towel that I made for Karma! She received it last week and says that she loves it! I am soooo glad! I had nerves about it, the whole time it was in transit...you know....as you get with all swaps!

I forgot to take an up close photo of the redwork that I did! So, I tried to cut out and enlarge the photo that I took and it didnt turn out too good, so I scrapped that idea - sorry!

Glad you like it, Lisa!

The way I made this -

Materials
1 piece of 100% cotton fabric (mine was actually an old curtain)
2 pieces of contrasting fabric (for the trim)
Thread to match the trim (or any other colour you like - I used red)
Embroidery thread for the redwork (of course, redwork does not actually have to be red - you can make it any colour you like!)
Embroidery pattern (I used 2....one for the girl and one for the flowers and bee and mixed them together)

NOTE: The embroidery is completely up to you! You can embellish the towel in any way you like - applique, embroidery, whatever tickles your fancy!

To Make
Decide what size you want your towel to be. I wanted something big, but not too big to be encumbersome (is that a word?), so I took an already used towel and measured that. Measure out your fabric and cut it to size. Remember the seam allowances! You need one on each side and one on each end!

Take your trim fabric and decide what you would like to do to it - you could just add it to the bottem of the towel, like I did, or completely encase the bottem, making the towel 3 times as thick on the end (if you get what I mean!). This is what I originally wanted to do, but forgot all about doing, so mine just got added on! You could also make it as small OR big as you would like!

After you decide this, measure and cut the trim to these measurements - make sure that it is the same width as the towel fabric and twice as long as the trim.

Fold over the seam allowances on the long side of the trim fabric, pin and iron. Then fold this whole thing in half (wrong sides facing) and iron.

Place the trim on the end/s where you decided that you would like to put it and sew a line just inside the trim edge. This can be a decorative stitch or you may decide to just straight stitch. If you straight stitch, I recommend you put two lines....just for extra stability!

Trim off the threads and hem the sides of the towel (I just folded mine and stitched with a straight stitch, but do yours whatever way you like!) and there you have it!! A blank canvas to work from! Now you can embroider, applique, paint or whatever and you have a unique, handmade gift for anyone!

AH! My first EVER sewing tutorial!! I hope that it is easy to understand! If not, feel free to leave a question in the comment area and I will try to answer it the best and most honest way I can!