Easy to Make French Tea Towels!

I love to take something simple, plain and inexpensive and turn it into something beautiful! I recently spent a couple of afternoons making French inspired tea towels using a simple heat transfer process!

As always, I found my beautiful French themed images at The Graphics Fairy at graphicsfairy.blogspot.com. If you love working with paper images, you have to check out this blog. Thank you again Karen, aka "The Graphics Fairy," for sharing!

Below is my favorite image found under the category "French" on Karen's website:

French Wreath with Bee

Making these heat transfer decorative tea towels requires:

1. Flour Sack Kitchen Towels

I found mine at Target for $3.99 for (4) towels. The brand that I purchased is RE Style. (There is no need to launder the towels in advance.)

2. Transfer Paper

I found mine at Hobby Lobby for $8.99 for (7) sheets. The brand that I purchased is TransferMagic Inkjet Transfer Paper. This paper is designed for hand iron transfer onto light colored fabric.

3.  An Iron and a hard surface on which to iron

I used a large cutting board for my ironing surface, which I placed on my kitchen counter and covered with an extra flour sack kitchen towel. (A typical ironing board is too soft for the the heat transfer process.)

4. An Image File

Again, The Graphics Fairy has literally thousand of amazing images to choose from. Download the image for printing. (NOTE: Keep in mind that any image with writing has to be a REVERSE image!)

5. Scissors!

The process is simple:

1. Print out your image onto the transfer paper per instructions on package.

2. Cut out your image from the paper leaving a 1/4" or 1/2" margin around the edge of the image. I love to decoupage and am used to cutting around intricate details. You can cut along as much or as little of the pattern detail as you want. Be careful though that you don't leave sharp corners that may lift off  the fabric after washing.

3. Empty any water from your iron and preheat to the cotton setting. Do NOT use steam.

4. Iron the area of the flour sack towel on which you want to place your image so there are no wrinkles. Let your fabric cool.

5.  Turn your cutout paper image side down and, with a hot iron, iron the image onto the fabric. I pressed down on the iron as I ran it across the image, ironing from side to side on the image. Do NOT hold the iron in one place. (Your transfer paper instructions will tell you how long to iron the image onto the fabric.)

6. Allow the fabric to cool and then peel away the backing paper. Your beautiful image will remain on the fabric!

7. Wash and dry the towel before using.

Enjoy!

Au revoir, Mitty