Bring a little summer outside activity to your kitchen with this Campin’ tea towel pattern by Patch Abilities. I had the pleasure of meeting Julie Wurzer, the creative mind behind the Patch Abilities patterns and knew I wanted to try one of her patterns! This Campin’ pattern speaks summer — trips to enjoy nature and trees. Looking for a quick project to brighten your home? Make these adorable tea towels using raw edge appliqué without fusible web.

I picked up a pack of Patrick Lose fat quarters — love the bright colors! Thought they’d be perfect for some bright and cheerful new kitchen towels for summer. I found nice big Flour Sack Kitchen Towels at World Market. I was looking for some linen towels with a nice stripe, but these were perfect. You can use any kitchen towels you find at home stores. The flour sack Kitchen towels were so huge, I actually cut one in half for this project, and hemmed the sides that I cut.

To hem the sides, I folded the fabric over twice, about 3/8″, pressed carefully and then topstitched. This was similar to the other sides of the towels, and made them a perfect size for this project. Now they are ready for some raw edge appliqué!

One (1) Appliqué Tea Towel

How to Raw Edge Appliqué without Fusible

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Active Time: 50 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Difficulty: Beginner

Play around with your fabric scraps to make some adorable raw edge appliqué tea towels!

Materials

Fabric scraps
Tea towel
Thread
Pre-purchased appliqué pattern or drawing to appliqué

Tools

Freezer paper
Sewing machine
Iron
Ironing board
Paper scissors
Fabric scissors
Pen or pencil

Instructions

First you need to prep for your appliqué pieces. Get out your drawing or pattern and trace each of the elements and pieces to the dull side of the paper and cut them out with your paper scissors. Now you have your patterns for your fabrics.
Here are the cut out pieces.
Now is the fun part! Pull out your fabric scraps and figure out what fabrics you want to use for each element. Make it your own! Who says a tree can't be made from a flowered fabric?

Once you have figured out your fabrics for each of your freezer paper pieces, head to your ironing board. Heat your iron to a medium setting. Place your fabric right side up on the ironing board. Gently press the shiny side of the freezer paper to the fabric. It will lightly stick to the fabric, making it easy to cut.
Cut your pieces out of your fabrics. Carefully peel off the freezer paper. It can be used multiple times.

Lay out your tea towel or item you are appliquéing and begin laying out your elements. Take liberty to do it your way, if you are using a pattern. Make it yours!
When all of the pattern pieces are cut out, pin your pieces onto the towels. You can use spray adhesive, if you'd like. (Use the spray adhesive in a well ventilated area.) I used pins, as I didn't have any adhesive (or a safe place to spray it).

I had two towels so I played around a little and ended up reversing the second camper, so they were mirror images. And, flipped the colors from pink to orange for the stripes on the camper.
Once your pieces are all pinned down and secure, it's time to go to the sewing machine! You can't mess this up! In fact, messy sewing sometimes looks better on projects like this!

I like to use black thread and let the lines show! I stitched around each piece three (3) times, to give it a sketched look. I sewed about 1/4" in from the raw edges.
To make the raw edges even more playful, take your scissors and cut through the fabric around the edge to encourage it to fray and roll up. I clipped the fabric about every 1/4" - 1/2" around all of the elements.

Toss your new tea towels in with your next load of laundry and the edges will fluff right up, giving your raw edge appliqué some great texture.

Here are the finished tea towels.

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What is raw edge appliqué?

With raw edge appliqué, you cut your fabric pieces exactly the size of the finished element. This is different than appliqué methods that turn under the edge of the fabric for hand appliqué. There are different ways to finish a raw edge appliqué project. You can do the straight stitch, as I did in the tea towels, or you can use a blanket or satin stitch along the edge to finish it – pick a look you like!

Browse through our other appliqué projects on Create Whimsy.