Painted DIY French Inspired Vintage Linen Tea Towels
Make DIY French inspired vintage look tea towels using cast-off linen pieces and craft paint. Keep them for yourself or give as a special inexpensive gift!
Calories:
Cost: $5
Materials
- Mid-to-heavy weight linen, cut and sewn to kitchen towel size (mine ranged from 20″ long x 18″ wide to 28″x 21″). Some items I used to cut my towels from: and old linen tablecloth I’ve had for years, but had developed holes, a heavy weight vintage linen tea towel remnant (I had used the lace edge to make the cuff a one of our Christmas stockings), and the back of a linen dress shirt Brian had worn before it developed yellow stains that couldn’t be removed. Hopefully, this will give you an idea of different ways you can find your ‘vintage’ linen. I then used a simple sewing technique like this one for the edges.
- Acrylic craft paint in desired color (most vintage tea towels have red, blue, green or black stripes)
- Fabric Medium Again, I used Martha Stewart brand fabric medium – I found that even though MS craft paint says it can be used on fabric, if you want it to be pliable and washable you need to still add the medium.
- Painter’s tape I used this Frog Tape.
- Foam brush, container to mix paint in, paper plate and paper towel or rag.
Instructions
- Before starting to actually paint your linen, you need to practice painting on strips of linen to get the right look for your color stripe.As you can see, I did quite a few, as the medium dilutes the color a bit.Mix 2 parts paint to 1 part medium and test what that looks like. I wanted a more washed-out, vintage-y look, so I added a bit more water and painted another test strip. Then I mixed in a different green and so on, experimenting with my technique as I went.Once you get your paint the color and wash that you like, it’s a simple process to paint your stripes.
- On a paper covered surface, use the painter’s tape to tape off your stripe on the long edge of the towel (vintage towels almost always have the stripes going the length of towels, not the ends).
- Use your finger to press firmly down on the side of the tape that will be painted to make sure paint doesn’t seep under.
- Dip your foam brush in the paint mixture and then dab on a paper towel. We’re aiming for a washed-look for this stripe, so try not to soak the fabric with all the paint on the brush.
- Paint the stripe in between the tape. You can see the fabric puckers some and the paint doesn’t go on evenly, but that just helps us get the washed-out look we’re going for. Go over it until you have the look you want (which you hopefully perfected with your practice pieces).
- Immediately grab a clean paper towel or rag and blot along the stripe. I blotted and rubbed a bit, again trying to fade the color a bit.
- Remove the tape as soon as you’re done blotting.
- Repeat with the other towels you have.
- Hang painted towels to dry for at least 24 hours and then heat set with an iron so they’ll be safe to wash (heat set by placing a piece of cotton over the painted area and ironing over it).
