Can It! Mason Jar Dishtowel

Gah. I love making dishtowels.

And let’s face it – I love making kind-of impractical dishtowels. The kind that make you freak out a little if your kids wipe their hands on them.

To be honest I don’t really care if they get messy. It’s worth it and I think it is soooo fun to add a bit of style and fun and color to your kitchen with sweet dishtowels!

Today’s new dishtowel is so cute – and a little snarky too. :)
It’s my Can It! Mason Jar Dishtowel!

You can totally leave off the little “Can It” label or change the wording if you don’t feel like basically telling someone to shut it on a dishtowel. ;)

The  Jars are stitched on, then embellished with just a wee bit of thread sketching. And they have baker’s twine decorating the lids! So fun.

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:

• Fabric for dishtowel:
  I used osnaburg but you can use any canvas or linen, or use a purchased dishtowel
  You’ll need a piece 21″ x 28″ and a piece 2 1/2″ x 56″ (that little one needs to be cut on the bias)
• Fabric for Jars, lids and label (see pattern for sizes – you don’t need much)
• Baker’s Twine
• Wonder Under
• Embroidery Floss
• Glue (for ends of twine)
• Pattern for Jars – Click Here to Open
  Please keep in mind that all Flamingo Toes patterns are for personal use only. Do not transfer or sell the pattern, or items made from the pattern.
  Also, patterns are for Flamingo Toes followers, so please choose to follow along before downloading any pattern. Thanks!

Start by embroidering your label. Trace the lettering onto a scrap of white fabric.
Use a back stitch to do the letters. If you need a tutorial you can find one on my How To Do That page for embroidery.

Pretend there’s an exclamation point on there ok? I sort of forget to trace mine.

Once your embroidery is done, iron a piece of Wonder Under to the back and cut out your label piece.
Iron Wonder Under to your jar and lid fabrics and cut those pieces out as well.

Lay out your jars on your dishtowel. Center the middle jar on the towel, about 4″ up from the bottom of the towel. Place the other two jars on either side, 1/2″ away from the center jar. Remove the paper backing and iron these in place.

Cut three 24″ pieces of baker’s twine in whatever colors you want. I found that the thicker twine works best here.
Lay the twine over the top section of the jar. For the middle jar I centered the twine. For the left and right jars, I layed them out a little uneven since I wanted the bows off-center.
(So the left jar had more twine on the left side.)
Place the lid piece over the twine and jar top. Remove the paper backing and iron down, sandwiching the twine between the two pieces.

Once all your twine and lids are ironed on, sew around the edges of the jars and lids with a little tiny zig zag stitch. Sew right over the edges of the jar lids, sewing over the twine at the same time.

Now we’re going to do our sketching. Lower the feed dogs on your machine and put on your free motion foot.
Mark the jars with the sketching lines that are on the pattern.

Sew over these lines, going over them as many times as you’d like. The more times you sew over them, the darker the lines will be.
For the jar lid, sew the horizontal lines on either side of the twine, then sew some zig zags in between the top and bottom lines, for a fun sketchy look.

Once your lines are all sketched on, tie the twine in the bows where you’d like them. Hand sew the knots of the bows in place.
Trim the bottoms of the bows so they’re not crazy long or crooked and treat the ends of the twine with glue so they don’t unravel.

Move the bow of your right dishtowel out of the way, then place the label to the side of the jar. Iron the label in place, then sew on with a small zig zag stitch.

Now we’re going to finish off the dishtowel. Hem the two long sides and the end of the dishtowel that won’t have the ruffle.

Hem the two short sides of the ruffle, then sew a gathering stitch 1/4″ away from the top edge.

Sew the right side of the ruffle to the right side of the bottom edge of the dishtowel with a 1/2″ seam. Press the ruffle down and top stitch the seam, 1/4″ from the edge on the dishtowel side.

And you’re all finished!!

So what do you think? Pretty fun right?

Linking up at Sunday Scoop, Today’s Creative Blog, Met Monday, Tutorials & Tips Tuesday, Quilt Story, Shabby Creek Cottage, My Repurposed Life, 504 Main, Positively Splendid, and the other fabulous parties on the party page – make sure you check them out!

This was originally a guest post over at Eat. Sleep. Make. :)