Stencil Linen Guest Towels Using A Fabric Marker

I don’t know why but I’ve been obsessed with printed hand towels lately. I love giving hand towels to friends as hostess gifts and so far they have been well received.

Linen hand towels make great gifts because not only are they affordable but they are also super practical. They are ideal for both the kitchen and the guest bathroom.

There are many different techniques on how to print fabric. You can stamp them, stencil them or screen print them. For my latest attempt, I decided to stencil my hand towels. But instead of stenciling the inside of the stencil like you normally would, I decided I would instead outline the stencil with a fabric marker. I decided on this look, because I wanted the white fabric to be the main color of the tea towel versus the blue.

To create these printed linen towels yourself, you just need a fabric marker, linen hand towels, masking tape and a stencil. Since I love Martha Stewart, I choose her line of large stencils for this craft.

(Random fact about me: In 2005, I tried out for The Apprentice: Martha Stewart television show. Unfortunately, I didn’t get very far in the application process. My guess is that I’m too boring. I am still convinced, however, that if given the chance, I would have won the whole shebang.)

The instructions are pretty simple. You first need to iron your hand towel.

Next you will want to place your stencil on the towel in the desired location. You should always start from the front and in the middle of the towel. You will then work outwards.

Obviously, I didn’t think it through properly when I first started this craft because I started from the back of the towel versus the front. So learn from my mistake and start from the front of the towel and in the center.

Once placed, use masking tape to tape down the stencil to avoid the stencil from shifting.

Using the fabric marker, outline the stencil.

Since the stencil doesn’t cover the entire area of the towel, once complete, you will need to move the stencil to the other parts of the towel. When you do this, be sure to align the pattern on the stencil to what makes sense. Tape down the stencil.

Continue outlining the stencil until the towel is complete.

If your outline looks too light or uneven, you may want to consider outlining the stencil twice. I had to do this because when I initially started each line, I pressed the fabric marker a little too hard. Therefore, the fabric marker looked a little darker at the beginning and the end of each trace.

I still have mixed feelings about this towel. I think it looks awesome from far away but close up not so much. I wish the lines looked more crisp. But it is growing on me. It kinda reminds me of the IKAT patterns where the edges are more blurry.

So what do you think?