dish towel » by elke

Silk Screen Totes, Aprons & Dish Towels

I started sewing the silk screen scraps into functional items & so far, this is what I’ve come up with. I’m thinking of putting together just 4 “Ultimate Kitchen Gift Bags” for the holiday Firefly show. Each gift bundle would include a shopping tote, cafe apron, linen dish towel, pot holder & perhaps a selection of different salts…. Any other ideas? Each item has a hand screened picture & the bags were made with the natural vegetan leather straps with the contrast signature painted tips, The dish towels have a linen ribbon attached to the top corner with an antique button for hanging on a hook. Being that repetition is not my strong point, each package will be different & unique.

Embroidered Dishtowels

I have made so many things from this white Ikea linen fabric that I bought years ago. I’m now officially out of it. It had great big leaves printed on it & it seemed to be the perfect fabric for everything from pillows & drawstring bags to aprons & dishtowels. Anyway, these are just simple embroideries that I designed to hang in my kitchen. The outline design on the right is my favorite. I like the simplicity of it.

Stenciled Linen

Linen Dishtowel with Stencil

The above stencil was cut out by hand using an exacto knife on a piece of plastic velum. I have used this on many dish towels & aprons. I sewed a piece of natural twill tape on the bottom that I decorated with dots printed from a pencil eraser dipped in fabric paint. I made a set of these towels as a house warming gift for friends moving into a new apartment.

This linen apron was made for my sister a while back & it’s apparent that it needed some ironing. I used the same stencil that was on the above linen dish towel but used 2 colors for the top & bottom borders. The straps were made from some really great polyester striped taping that I found at one of my all time favorite Japanese ribbon stores in NYC. When it was all finished I embroidered around one of the bottles & added a flower.

My Linen Apron

The last version of this stencil belongs to me! I use this cafe apron constantly. I sewed on a small red cross detail for interest & hand stitched the bottoms of the strap with red embroidery thread.