Kitchen towels … can you ever have too many of them?
Most of mine are pretty grungy from everyday use, so I don’t display them. But every so often I treat myself to a pretty new one.
I decided me and my kitchen were worth it.
Since I’ve been adding touches of black and gray into my farmhouse kitchen, when I spotted a black and white buffalo check towel, I had to get it.
It wasn’t cheap for one single towel, so I only bought one, which looked a little bare hanging on my oven. But I knew I could easily make some companion towels that would look perfect with it.
They are so easy that you can make one in about ten minutes or less, so I’ll show you how I did it.
How to Make Farmhouse Flour Sack Kitchen Towels
Supplies Needed:
flour sack towels
farmhouse stencils
stencil brush
fabric paint (I got mine at Hobby Lobby with a coupon.)
painter’s tape
shipping tape
Squeegee
Black ink
I buy flour sack towels in bulk packs. I use them for everything – washing dishes, cleaning windows, dusting, etc.
They are fairly lint-free and dry quickly, and they are so farmhousish. 🙂
1. Use shipping tape to secure the towel to a hard flat surface.
2. Determine where you want the image and use painter’s tape to secure the stencil to the towel.
3. Load paint on stencil brush, then wipe most of it off so the brush is almost dry.
4. Lightly tamp brush over the stencil until you have your desired darkness.
5. Remove tape & you’re done!
I lightly ironed out really bad wrinkles first but didn’t try to get every wrinkle. Flour sack towels are supposed to look crinkly.
I used the Milk and Cream Co. stencil and the Fresh Flowers stencil for my towels (links below.
Squirt a dollop of fabric paint on a paper plate. I use paper towels to wipe off the excess paint to prevent bleeding under the stencil.
Fabric is easy to stencil on. As long as you don’t overload your brush with paint, you’ll rarely get bleed under the stencil.
Pull away the painter’s tape and remove the shipping tape, and Voila!
Instant farmhouse kitchen towels cuteness!
Here’s another fun set using a transfer and gray ink.
Purchase Milk & Cream Co. stencil HERE.
Purchase Fresh Flowers stencil HERE.
Purchase Let’s Stay In transfer HERE.
See all Milk & Cream Co. stencil projects HERE.
See Fresh Flowers project HERE.
Click on the images below to see more farmhouse stencil projects.
I love this, Angie! I need to get my Milk and Cream Co, stencil out and make some!
Thanks for sharing! Pinning!
Thanks Linda – I love it when I do a project that takes less time to make than to take the photos of! 🙂
Just perfect! Pinned to do. Is there a source for the black and white towel? Thanks for sharing.
These are super cute! i love them. What a great tutorial. I hope you’ll come over and share at The Fabulous Party! The post is perfect for our theme this month. DIY, Decluttering…HeHe anything home related.
Come and join the party. The link changes on Sunday afternoon.
Come and join the party and share the love!
I really have to try stenciing again. My first and only time doing it wasn’t nearly up to my standards in terms of clean edges! The towels look great together!
I love how your tea towels turned out!! I have been wanting to make some of these for so long now and your sweet tea towels have totally inspired me to do so!
Where do you find the flower sacks in bulk? I would love to make some of these for my mom, girls, and of course myself! Thank you for all of the wonderful crafting ideas you share.
Debbie, you can get them in bulk packs at Walmart. I think 10 or 15 come in the pack.
Hi Angie: I have a thing for kitchen tea towels. I have a stash of them for every season that I use for decor and only use them in the kitchen once I have had them for a couple of years.
I am Canadian so getting nice fabric is a pain. I had just decided to try and paint some with mason jars on them. Using fabric paint is certainly the way to go. Thanks for the directions.
Leanna
Thanks Leanna! I will only use mine for decor too, or my family will wipe dirty fingers on them. :}
So stinking cute! I didn’t realize how easy it was to actually stencil on the flour Sack towels. I have bunch of vintage napkins that were made from linen that are just big enough to be repurposed into towels. Someone already did the hard part of sewing the edges lol and since I refuse to host any get together inside my home requiring the service of any napkins other than paper lol…I have been traumatized from hosting sit down, formal
Dinners. Omg almost 10 years ago I (we) hosted my husband’s family for thanksgiving. We lovingly refer to this incident as The great crap on Jessica Day, Thanksgiving Day, 2007 lol. Ughhh…ummm basically it was open season on me and HIS family picked me apart the entire time.. one by one…they had something to say about me..my home decor (seriously my curtains even!!) my dinner that I busted my Behind to make… and critiqued everything I did or didn’t do that day… I swore that was the last time I hosted any type of formal sit down dinner…and it was haha…. now they get to enjoy the fresh air of the outdoors and paper plates and napkins, burgers and hot dogs… lol. I refuse to bring out my good China, cutlery and linens for those whom act like children in my home haha… anyways I digress… but I don’t have the need for fancy napkins so either I’ll use your method to fancy them up to sell them or just make towels from them. Thanks for the great tutorial and now I know not to be afraid of stenciling them! I was going to embroider them but this is so much quicker and easier for sure! Thanks
Vintage napkins will probably be even easier to stencil on than flour sack towels, because they won’t be as lightweight.
I hate to say it, but I’ve had a visitor or two criticize things in my home too. Ouch! Apparently not everyone know the “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all rule, Jessica!
I am putting flour sack towels on the shopping list. I am so tired of the cheap ones I keep tossing out over and over, I’d love all purpose towels, especially if I can stencil them! Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday. Pinned!
I absolutely love these towels. Thanks for the inspiration and thanks for sharing this with us at the Waste Not Wednesday link party. Can’t wait to see what you are up to this week.