Spring-time Eggstravaganza: Quickie Egg Applique Towel

Hello all! I am here today with my last springy project as a part of the Spring-time Eggstravaganza series.  Hard to believe Easter is already here .... we just had snow this week in Michigan!

This last project I have for you is a cute kitchen towel  embellished with egg shaped applique.   If you use a premade tea towel, this project goes together in no time flat ... but of course you could always make your own, using my famous (and free!) perfectly sized linen tea towel tutorial HERE.  I saved this project for last, not only because it is one of the quickest projects to put together, but personally, I think this towel will look cute hanging around the kitchen year round, which is why I chose to use darker colors in lieu of pastels.

Anyways, if you are new to turned edge applique, you will find it is a nice alternative to raw edge applique.  There is no fraying, and can give applique a more "finished" feel.  This tutorial is not only going to show you how to make the cute egg towel shown above, but how to do turned edge applique as well.  So, even if eggs aren't your thing, I hope this tutorial will be a great "how-to" on turned edge applique that you can reference in the future for other projects.

As a side note, because this project is smaller, you could also substitute sewing this project by hand for any of the steps where a sewing machine is used.

Let's get started!

x-x-x Egg Shaped Applique Tea Towel Tutorial + Turned Edge Applique How-To x-x-x

finished size: completely up to you!

Materials/Supplies:

Egg Template, get it HERE
Tea Towel, any size
5 charm squares , or any other pieces of quilting weight cotton cut to 5" x 5" each
5 scraps of muslin cut to 5" x 5" each
Basic sewing supplies: sewing machine, needle, thread, scissors, iron, pencil (or other marking tool), etc.

Optional: Coordinating hand embroidery floss and hand embroidery needle

Note to my international friends: 1" = 2.54 cm
Abbreviation key: RST = right sides together

Curious about my supplies? The tea towel is an Aunt Martha's tea towel -- they are reproductions of towels from the 1930's, and the fabric I used are also reproductions from the 1930's, aptly named,  "1933" by Chloe's Closet for Moda.

Instructions:

1. Print your egg template.  Be sure to set the page scaling to "none" so that the template prints at full size.
 
2. Notice how there are a bunch of different sized eggs on the egg template?  Decide which sizes you want to use.  You could do the eggs all the same size, different sizes, one of each ... it really is up to you.

3. Take your printed egg template, and place a piece of muslin on top of  one of the eggs.  Trace the egg shape onto the muslin (using your pencil or other marking tool).

Trace the entire egg shape (of your chosen size) onto the muslin.

4. Repeat step 3 for your remaining pieces of muslin.

5. Take one of your charm squares and place it RST with one piece of muslin (note, the muslin does not really have a right or a wrong side). Pin together and bring over to your sewing machine.

6. Sew completely around your traced egg just inside your traced line.

7. Using scissors, trim 1/4" completely around the egg.

8. Pinch the center of the muslin up, and using a small pair of sharp scissors, snip an "X" shape into the center of the muslin.

9. Turn your egg right side out through the snipped center of the muslin.

10. Press.  If there are any weird pointy parts on the egg, just finger press them in, and then press with the iron until the eggs are nice and smooth looking.

11. Repeat steps 5-10 for your remaining pieces of muslin/charm squares.

All 5 eggs sewn up, turned right side out, and pressed.

12. Decide where you would like your eggs to be on your tea towel, and pin in place. 




Where you put the eggs on your towel is up to you.  This photo shows the eggs placed about 1" up from the bottom of the towel , but I ended up moving the eggs up quite a bit higher -- around 4" up from the bottom.  Just play around with the placement and see how you like them before you sew them on.

 13. Bring the towel with pinned eggs to your sewing machine, and sew them on.  I used a short zig zag stitch, but a straight stitch, satin stitch or blanket stitch would work just as well.

14. Press.

15. Optional: Add some hand embroidery. 

I added a wee bit of hand embroidery to my towel.  I applied a running stitch to the eggs and the towel border, and put a lazy daisy with some french knots on the center egg.  This photo shows how I applyt a running stitch to the bottom of tea towels -- I use a long soft sculpture doll needle to make quick work of it.

16. Done -- add a picture to the split stitch flickr pool!

Enjoy!

Hugs, Sara :)