Easy Decorative Tea Towel Tutorial

I don't know about you, but I've had a number of friends get engaged or married recently, and I've needed to come up with gift ideas for them! I came up with these handmade tea towels as a fun idea. They're really easy to make, and you could easily make them in an afternoon. Plus, they don't require many materials - when I made this set, I was able to use fabrics entirely from my stash. Let's take a look at just how easy they are to whip up.

What You'll Need for Decorative Tea Towels

Start with pre-made tea towels to make things easier. You can buy a bulk package on Amazon so you always have some ready to decorate for friends. Or you can buy just a few, although the cost per towel will be higher. Since these are gifts, it's important to me to choose high-quality materials. I like these towels or this set. They're soft and absorbent, yet strong enough to stand up under repeated washings.

You'll also need strips of cotton fabric to sew to the tea towels. Cotton is my favorite kind of fabric for these projects because it is absorbent and holds up well. The best type is cotton quilting fabric because it's of such high quality. Just make sure you pre-wash and dry any fabric you use, as it tends to shrink, and you don't want your finished project looking wonky!

Measure the Fabric Widths

Now, lay the tea towel out and measure how wide across it is. Add an extra inch on either end to determine how long your strip of fabric should be. For example, if the tea towel is 27" wide, your strip should be 29" long. 

For the width, start by figuring out how wide you want the row of decorative strips to be. Mine was around 4.5". Leave a quarter-inch seam allowance on either side. I cut each strip 2" wide, so each strip was 1.5" when sewn together.

Stitch the Pieces Together

Now it's time to piece the strips together. Sew the strips to each other along the long sides, in the order you want them to be on the towel. Make sure to match right sides together. Iron the piece so it is nice and flat when you are done.

Lay this piece along your tea towel and pin the top and bottom edge of the piece to the tea towel, folding the raw edges under as you go. Don't worry about the ends hanging over the edge of the tea towel right now. Sew this to the tea towel carefully, stitching as close to the edge of the piece as possible.

Fold the ends over to the back twice to hide the raw edges of the fabric. Again, sew carefully because you are going over several layers of fabric at this point. I actually went over this a couple of times to make sure it was secure and would stand up under many loads of laundry.

Your tea towel is all done! I like to give it a final ironing at the end so it looks nice for presentation, but this isn't necessary if you're happy with it at this stage.

What are your favorite gifts to make for your friends?