Hand Painted Tea Towels {Maraschino Red}.

When I first got out my flour sack linen, Tulip soft Fabric paint, and flat rounded paint brush, I had the thoughts of painting my next tea towel with a geometric pattern such as stripes or chevron. Yet something held me back from painting. I love chevron, yet I am beginning to feel its loosing its novelty as every other DIY I come across embraces the zip zag pattern. Believe me, I still love it, and you would most likely wow me with your very own DIY showcasing the pattern, as I am still adding chevron pins to my Pinterest boards--however, I am needing a new pattern to be my new chevron, you know what I mean? And in regards to stripes, my hand felt a bit wobbly, so that idea went out the window!

To try a pattern with the similar zig zag that is near and dear to the chevron lover's heart, yet add in a new little twist, I decided to go with this hour glass shape that I continued to dream about from a recent perusing of West Elm pillow cases HERE. The pattern still embodies that zig zag quality, yet it somewhat tricks the eye with the brush stroke length increasing and decreasing in size like it does. I also love that the pattern goes well with the Ikat prints in my home and compliments the last tea towel I painted HERE.

To start, I used blue painters tape to hold in place the plain white flour sack towel on my kitchen counter. Underneath the towel was a drop cloth as the paint does seep through a bit because the material is rather thin. I started painting from the top left corner of the fabric and worked my way down.  Each vertical line painted was either a bit larger or shorter than the proceeding line (as you can see in the photographs). Each line was the width of the brush I used. I did this purposefully to keep a consistent and easy line width. Below you can see the process of painting one line:

After painting the very first hourglass row at the top of the linen, I went back to the left side of the towel and began line two. To master the zig zag pattern in this hourglass look, each row needs to compliment the row above and below. This means that where the row is in its thickest points, the rows above and below should be in their skinniest. After your first two rows, it is easy to see the zig zag and use that as reference for the spacing of your following rows. The main trick is to stay consistent in spacing of where you start and end each row. Just use your eye and your gut to make the call on whether it looks right, that's what I did! After completing about ten rows, I left it to dry for about 3 hours. When washing, wash on cold and preferably not with your clothing (you never want to chance getting any remnants of fabric on your favorite comfy tee!).

This tea towel is so bright and cheery. I have a lot of aqua blue in my kitchen along with the almost black cabinets and stainless steel appliances. This red really adds a color pop and I just love it! And, like I have said in the past, my outfits always seem to translate into whatever I am painting, designing, or swooning over. 

Its true,West Elm pillows have been a common inspiration for my projects. You can see the fabric chevron inspiration HERE. And in case you missed the last tea towels painted, you can check those out--over here. Any thoughts on the next hand painted tea towel design?