Haunted Tea Towels
To those of you who know me, it comes as no surprise that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. What other time of the year do adults and children alike run around in costumes fueled by massive sugar overloads?! I love all of it, the spooky themes, the movies I watch with one eye (I used to be much braver), the wonderful acceptance of eating candy until you are sick, not to mention there are usually numerous great musical acts to choose between. What’s not to love?
This year I was commissioned to make some vintage inspired, hand embroidered, Halloween Tea Towels. I can’t say that I myself often have an excuse to decorate with something this elegant, but I remember my grandmother fondly displaying her variety of hand embroidered linens. My client had already selected a one spoke white linen handkerchief as the towel. So the research I did was focused on old vintage designs and hues of threads I should stitch with to make them authentic.
For this project I found so many great inspirations from old vintage Halloween clothing to old flyers and posters announcing various fall and Halloween themed events. Tea towels are traditionally ironed in a tri-fold manner and then folded in half. So I saw this as a guideline to use a strong central spooky image on each side. Stitching running side borders was a great way to add detail and give the towels the option of being pressed flat for display as well. I used typical Halloween colors like black, orange, and purple but I was sure to select hues that were more vintage and rustic feeling. Today pumpkins are neon orange and any color imagined can be made with a mix, but back when threads were hand dyed from the natural environment, the colors were just a little more subtle and muted.
Once I was ready to begin I gathered the tools needed. I started out by sketching at least one of each of the most typical Halloween images. Things like bats, witches and ghosts, but I wanted to keep the designs fairly simple. It felt more important to use the negative space in the design rather than filling every square inch with thread. This led me to a handful of images that could be used. Once I had narrowed down the 8 images I would stitch I had to decide which items to pair together per towel. Ultimately, I think that the designs paired up well, but then again the order could really go any way.
Because the linen was so delicate, I did not want to use any type of ink to transfer my designs. I ended up just using my light table and a pencil. It’s a little trickier this way because sometimes the design has just about worn off when you get to the end (not to say I couldn’t re-trace but who wants to repeat steps). Linen is a delicate material to stitch on so I did use some tear away Skulky backing in a few places. The nature of a one sided napkin is that the back stitching needs to be very orderly and neat. Two words I’d rather not put up with when stitching, but my years of practice at not knotting my threads was a life saver. I selected stitches that tend to look the same on the back as well as the front and I checked for hangups in my thread just about every stitch.
This is what makes hand embroidery so special. Every part of it was made by conscious choice and purpose. It took forethought and skill not simply pressing the start button on an embroidery machine. These become instant heirlooms as well as one of a kind art, as no two will ever be exactly alike due to their handmade nature. I’ve held onto these designs and would be happy to make another set as well as creating something custom. Keep a look out as I go through my box of antique linens. In the future my shop will feature more of these delicate, vintage inspired, hand embroideries.
