Handprinted Tomato Tea Towels: A Charming Homemade Gift

Wooden berry crates with a tomato plant in a paper bag, and tomatoes, and tomato designed tea towels on an outdoor teak table.

Making a few hand-printed tea towels was easier than I thought, and it’s fun! I love making things, that’s no secret, and I love trying new projects. For this project, I needed only a few supplies. Now that I have made a few, I think I’ll be experimenting with more designs.

The supplies you will need:

Supplies on red graphic to make tomato printed flour sack towels.

100% cotton flour sack towels
Green fabric paint
Red fabric paint
Fabric paint markers (I did not use, but it would have made it easier)
Thin paint brush
Foam dauber for making circles

Supplies for making it a gift:

Wooden berry baskets
Gingham ribbon or twine
Fresh tomatoes on the vine
A tomato plant in a paper bag

Wooden berry crates with a tomato plant in a paper bag, and tomatoes, and tomato designed tea towels on an outdoor tea

Steps to making your tomato tea towels:

Tomatoes in a wooden berry crate, a whote towel with painted tomatoes, cups of red and green paint with a foam dauber and a paint brush.

There are very few steps to making hand-printed tea towels. It’s one of those crafts that leaves you wondering, why haven’t I done this before! At first, I practiced on an old towel.

Wash your tea towels. I use the inexpensive flour sack towels that are available at Walmart.
You will need paint that is specifically designed for fabric. It’s water-based and non-toxic, but can be washed without losing the color.
You’ll need to “set” the paint with heat. I used an iron.
Get ready to paint! Make sure your work surface is covered with heavy paper or cardboard beneath the cloth you will paint on.
To make the tomatoes (red circles), dip the foam dauber in paint, then onto the cloth. Dip into the paint for each circle. For full coverage, there’s a lot of paint, so it will take time to dry. You can use a hair dryer to speed things up.
Using a brush or a fabric paint marker, paint the stems green.
Wash, and hang to dry.
Press lightly.

How I wrap them up as a gift

Tomato plant in a berry basket with a tea towel featuring a hand-painted tomato design.

Tomato plant in a berry basket with a tea towel featuring a hand-painted tomato design, nd red and white gingham ribbon.

There are a few ways to wrap up your tomato tea towels as a gift. I used a wooden berry crate and added a tomato plant in a crumpled-up brown paper bag. I added a couple of tomatoes on the vine to the crate, then added the tea towel. Simple, but I love a theme. If this were for a teacher gift, I would add a gift card to a local nursery if the teacher were a gardener.

You could also just roll up three towels, put them in the wooden crate, and tie them up with some ribbon or twine. Makes a great summer hostess gift.

Let me know if you try this project and if you come up with some other fun designs!