More Fun With Tea Towels

Okay, so I know you were all wondering what was to become of the hand dyed tea towels from last week.  Well, believe it or not, I had a plan all along.  Here's how they turned out.

I used a self-adhesive, tear-away stabilizer to do the decorative machine stitching.  I attempted this same project a few months ago without the stabilizer and it was a big pain in the you-know-what.  The end results last time were okay but not great.  This time everything went way better.  Here's a close-up of the stitching.

 I paired the towels with some hand knit dishcloths and gave them as a wedding gift to a friend whose kitchen is brown and tan themed.  To be honest, I wasn't completely thrilled with how all these shades of brown came together but it was too late to turn back by the time I realized I was pushing the limits of this color palette.  I do find comfort in the fact that when you separate the towels from the dishcloths, everything looks fine.

These towels were a very fun and simple project.  I would like to make more of them in the future.  My current sewing machine has over forty decorative stitches so there will be lots of room for experimentation.