Watercolour tea towels

We’ve been in this house for over two years now. It’s seen us through a wedding, different colour walls and a lot of sleepovers on our sofa.

We’ve put a lot of effort into making it the perfect little nook, however everyday I stare at the drawers in our kitchen and feel sad to look at the state of our current tea towels. Beyond stained and tatty, I long for the lovely tea towels at TkMaxx but had to restrain myself, because I had already bought the materials to make my own.

I love the idea of printing my own fabrics but have put this project off for so long as I was scared of how it would turn out, it did take one trial that in the bin to get it right, and I absolutely love them.

Now that I got the hang of this technique here’s what you’ll need for your watercolour tea towels.

Materials:
Masking tape
White tea towels, washed and ironed
Green, Red, Orange, Yellow and white fabric paint
Medium sized brush
Disposable cups
Absorbent kitchen towels
Cardboard

How to:

1. Cover your table with carboard, then line that with the kitchen towels and secure them with sticky tape

2. Lay one of the tea towels, as flat as you can, and secure edges firmly with masking tape. Measure 5 cm from stitch at the edges. Mark this with a pencil and make a stick masking tape along the marks to leave a non-painted edgr

3. Squeeze a little paint on 3 different pots, on the first one add a little white, on the second a bigger amount and on the third pot a generous amount of white. For the orange colour add yellow and orange to different pots then on third pot mix orange with a small quantity of white. There are not specific measurements here, you just want tone that are gradually lighter than the next. Keep one of the cups with water.

4. Start with the darkest tone, using the brush generously stroke the bottom part, then brush it with water. Follow this with the next lighter tone and repeat the water until you reach the final tone.

5. Finish with a brush of water, using the water sparingly. Don’t worry if it bleeds over the edge a little bit.