Homemade vintage

I have been embroidering ever since I was 10. When my family moved from Connecticut out to sunny CA, my mom put us in after school programs to keep us busy so we would forget the fact that we missed our friends back home. We lived in Piedmont, near Oakland and Berkeley, for about six months and the people there were unbelievably snooty. It wasn't that easy to find new friends, so we appreciated the distractions. My mom put me in a sewing class. I thought it was dorky at first because I was 10 in a room full of old women quilting, but I really came to enjoy it. It required precision and serious patience and attention to detail that 10 year olds don't normally care to develop. I quickly fell in love with this art, because that is what it was to me since I can't draw or paint. You create something, whatever it is, and you have a sense of pride and happiness that wells within you. I have only recently begun to sew conventionally with a sewing machine, but I still try to keep to my roots of classic embroidery. These days I have been embroidering tea towels with these vintage patterns I found off the internet (also available at Walmart) as gifts and hand towels for my apartment.

If you know how to make a simple backstitch, you can definitely make this towel.

1) With tea towel (sackcloth towel from Walmart or wherever) trace a relatively simple pattern with a tracing pen that washes out with water.

2) Pick one color to be simple and embroider the pattern with a simple backstitch along all the lines. You can get more complicated with various stitches and colors if you like.


** Tips for embroidering - Keep all stitch lengths the same to give it a uniform look and try to keep the back free from tangles or unnecessary thread build up to make the back look as clean as the front.