Christmastime comes with many traditions and lots of family togetherness. I know I am not alone when I say that “it’s not Christmas without…” followed by so many different family recipes; Chex Mix, Bourbon Slush, Puppy Chow, Sugar Cookies, Christmas Candy etc. For my husband it would be Carrot Soufflé, Grandma Peter’s Ice Box Cookies, and more. My Grandma Buckley always had fudge and divinity on Christmas and my Grandma Gall had a special Christmas jar with Chex Mix inside. I have that jar now and think of her when I pull it out each season. These family recipes are often passed down generation to generation and old-fashioned written recipes are treasured. This DIY tutorial shows how an heirloom recipe card can be preserved and shared with many. These Family Heirloom Recipe Tea Towels will make the perfect gift for a family gift exchange. Meaningful gifts always go over well! What can be better than a useful gift made with love that showcases a family treasure?
This DIY was inspired by Spoonflower’s tutorial.
DIY Heirloom Recipe Tea Towels
Equipment
- Computer
- Sewing Machice
- Scissors
- Iron
Materials
- 1 Fat Quarter Linen Cotton Canvas
Instructions
- Create a new document that is 27” wide, 18” high, and 150 Pixels/Inch. Spoonflower uses RGB color mode, so choose RGB for this project.
- Create guides 1” in from each side. This will allow us to hem the towels on each side, creating nice, finished edges.
- Place the scanned recipe file into the document. Size the recipe so that it fits comfortably inside the guides. Remember, everything outside of the guides will be hemmed under, so everything intended for the front of the tea towel should be inside the guides.
- I chose to fill the borders outside of the guides with color so that the hemmed side of the towel will have a fun pop. Alternatively, you can leave them blank or just fill a background layer with a neutral color to blend with the recipe.
- Save the original as a Photoshop file so that you can come back to it later and made edits. Next, save as a jpg file to upload to Spoonflower.
- On Spoonflower’s website, select the new jpg file and upload.
- Once the file is ready, choose Linen Cotton Canvas as the fabric and choose Fat Quarter as the size. If you want to create more, you can choose a full yard and you will end up with four towels!
- After the fabric arrives, press out any wrinkles with an iron on the cotton/linen setting.
- Using a rotary cutter and ruler, cut off the excess unprinted fabric. If you chose to purchase a full yard with four recipes printed together, you will also cut the four towels apart during this step.
- Turn the color border under and press.
- Fold the color border in half and press again.
- Sew the border/hem down and the sweet recipe towel is complete and ready for gifting – or treasuring in your own home!