Simple Dishtowel Makeover

My favorite towels to dry dishes are those simple flour sack towels you can find at Target or many grocery stores. They cost less than $4 per towel, and they dry dishes like nobody's business.

It's funny how a dish drying towel can make all the difference when cleaning up after a large dinner party, but it drives me nuts when I get stuck using a non-absorbent, yet very decorative towel. You know how it goes... you and a friend (or sister) decide to help cleanup by tackling the dishes. Friend takes washing duty, leaving you with drying duty. Your dish-washing buddy hands you one of a dozen china dinner plates to dry (since they have to be hand washed), and you grab the only towel in sight and start attempting to dry the plate. 

If you're like me, you try and keep up with the washer, which can be a challenge unless they are stuck scrubbing the turkey pan, or something. Anyway, you eagerly start drying that first china plate, but it seems like you're just smearing water around, and yet somehow, you're "drying towel" is soaked and you haven't even finished one plate! By the time you finally manage to get that first plate dry, the washer has completed about ten of the twelve dinner plates... you're behind. 

When this happens to me, all I can think is, "next time, I'm bringing my own drying towel..."

Well, as I mentioned, I love the flour sack towels for drying, but they are solid white in color, which can be boring if you're wanting something more decorative. So, where do I turn when I want to add a graphic to a plain towel? The Graphics Fairy, of course! For this project, I used her lovely oranges image. I decided a bit of color would be nice, and what better image for a dish-drying towel than food!

I opened it up in Photoshop and removed the background. (This isn't really necessary since you will cut out the fruit anyway.) I printed the image onto heat transfer paper made for ink jet printers. You should be able to find this at your local craft store, or online. 

Once printed, I cut out the image, peeled off the backing, and ironed it onto my towel. That's it! Super easy, but a great way to spruce up the best drying towels ever.

I've also used the Citrasolv method to transfer black and white images onto these towels. See this post if you're interested in that technique.

Linking up at:

The Graphics Fairy

Alderberry Hill

The Winthrop Chronicles

Uncommonly Yours

Whimsy Wednesdays

Someday Crafts

Crafty Scrappy Happy

At the Picket Fence

Live Laugh Rowe

French Country Cottage

The Shabby Nest

Raising Oranges

Do Something Crafty

It's Overflowing

Sunday Showcase