Everyone has those scraps of paper with recipes, written in almost confusing cursive, that date back to what might be the Stone Age. Oftentimes they are thrown away by mistake or even brushed into the trash without a second thought. Is there a simple way to keep these little recipes alive in the family without discovering one morning that your new puppy chewed up the last -- and only -- paper copy you own?
Enter recipe tea towels: cloth sheets embossed with your favorite blueprints for the flavors no other cookbook's prescription can match. With these handy towels, there is no need to discard the beautiful handwriting your grandmother used as she imparted her flavorful wisdom to the many generations to come. No more stashing that pitiful scrap in a filing drawer where it gets lost, regardless of your organizational efforts. With recipe tea towels, you can unite convenience with stewardship.
Making your own recipe tea towel is the only way to preserve your own recipe slips in this fashion, but fortunately, the process is fairly simple -- and quite fun. Here is a quick run-down of everything you will need to create your own recipe tea towels.
Here are the tools:
1. Purchase Heat'n Bond EZ Print Transfer Sheet paper. This product can be found at your local craft store or online, and one sheet is generally sufficient for multiple copies of a recipe.
2. Find a piece of fabric of your choice and your recipe slip. The fabric will be added to the edges of the recipe cloth (which we will explain in a minute), so it could be as bold and fancy or as mellow and simplistic as you desire.
3. Buy 100% cotton tea towels AKA flour sack towels here at Mary's Kitchen Flour Sack Towels. This is the piece of cloth on which your recipe's words will be printed.
BONUS: Purchase or find a specific material for the trim. This could be intricate lace, flamboyant pom-pom ties, or fancy tassels. Now it's time for the exciting part.
Here are some directions for your convenience:
1. Scan the recipe. Printers, separate scanning devices, and photo-editing software are ideal choices for this purpose. Alternatively, in the case that the recipe is very old or washed out, you can write down the recipe on a separate sheet of paper to scan.
2. Place one Heat'n Bond EZ Print Transfer Sheet in the printer. Make sure to print the recipe in mirror-image. In other words, print the wording of your recipe backward on the Heat'n Bond sheet.
3. When you have a satisfactory copy of your recipe on the Heat'n Bond sheet, use a pair of scissors to cut away the excess material surrounding the words.
4. Iron the flour cloth towels.
5. Decide where you want to place the recipe wording on the flour sack towel and situate the printed sheet accordingly, laying it face-down.
6. Set your iron to the "cotton" setting (it should be very hot) and ensure that there is no water on the towel's surface. Do not slide the iron over the cloth -- all you have to do is press the iron firmly down on the area where the wording is placed. Hold for thirty seconds. After this period, move to the next section.
7. After this process, allow at least one minute for the transfer paper to cool off. Now it's time for some magic.
8. Slowly peel the transfer paper away from the flour cloth. The recipe's letters should appear on the cloth in clean, clear print.
9. Sew your fabric material to the edges of the flour cloth towel.
10. For a polished and elegant finish, sew your choice of trim material to the edge of the fabric.
Now you have your finished product: a beautiful tea towel embossed with your own recipe, maintaining the same character of its original handwriting and showcasing your own personality with a unique fabric print and delicate trim. This towel is not just a cunning strategy to keep your recipe in the family but a charming little cloth to grace your tea parties, birthday celebrations, and family holiday gatherings. Most importantly, it is a multifunctional cloth that cleans up your spills AND provides you with a helpful guide for those last-minute dinners or luncheons. DIY recipe tea towels are a win-win because they are both practical and fashionable.
Hopefully, this guide was helpful to you and provided some inspiration for your next DIY project.
