Appliqued Kitchen Towel

Do you need a clever idea for a gift? Here is a fairly simple machine applique kitchen towel. You can purchase 100% cotton kitchen flour sack towels like I did, or make your own out of 100% cotton muslin. This is another great project for using fabric scraps. Anyone would love to recieve a cute towel to brighten up thier kitchen! 

100% Cotton flour sack towel. Small amount of fabric, Wonder Under Fusible Webbing. Sewing machine, Iron, scissors, thread.
Wash and dry the towels before decorating.

I found a simple Fleur de Lis design that I wanted to applique onto a kitchen towel. The simpler the design, the easier they are to make.

Cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than the design.
Cut a piece of fusible webbing just a bit smaller than the fabric.
iron fusible webbing onto the wrong side of fabric, paper side up.
pin paper design onto fabric.
Cut out design.
Peel paper off back of design.

Place the design onto the towel and press with a hot iron. I wanted my design near the bottom edge in the center. 

You will need to strengthen the applique on the back of the towel because these towels are very thin and you don't want it to fall apart the first time you wash it. Cut out a piece of an extra towel slightly larger than the paper pattern. Iron a piece of fusible webbing onto one side, paper side up. Peel the paper off the back and place this on the back of the towel, over the colored design. Press with a hot iron.

Now you are ready to machine applique. 

Sew with a zig-zag stitch around the entire design.

These kitchen towels don't take very long to make, I bet you know several people who would love to recieve one as a gift. Try to make a very simple design first, like a heart or a leter. Once you've got the process figured out, move on to a design thats a bit more complicated, with 2 or 3 different colors of fabric. Trace around a cookie cutter! The possibilities are endless.