Tea Towel Calendar

2013 is right around the corner! Do you have your new calendar? I bet several people on your gift list don’t either. That’s why I think these tea towel calendars from Spoonflower would make a great gift.

Have you heard of Spoonflower? It is a custom fabric printing company that allows you to upload your own fabric patterns to print. But, you can also browse other designers’ fabrics and purchase yardage too. A month ago I happened to be browsing their website when I stumbled across these award winning tea towel calendar designs. They were absolutely adorable and I knew they’d make great gifts for a few young nieces I know. I ordered a few fat quarters (one calendar fits on one fat quarter of fabric) and anxiously awaited their arrival. (If you want to make your own calendar, order ASAP as their guaranteed delivery date for the holidays is December 17th.)

The material comes with unfinished edges, so they need a little sewing magic, but it won’t take more than 15 minutes if you pre-cut everything and have your sewing machine pre-threaded.

Materials:

• 1 Fat quarter of a Tea Towel calendar design
  • Woodland Animals Calendar by JeAnna Casper
  • Owl See You Next Year Calendar by Jennifer Wambach
  • Other Spoonflower Tea Towel calendars
• Dowel rod (or straight branch) cut 4″ longer than the width of the tea towel)
• Coordinating fabric for pole pocket (pre-cut 6″ tall by the same width as your calendar before hemming.)
• Iron
• Ribbon or rope
• Color coordinated thread

 Instructions:

Trim the excess fabric off the bottom of the fat quarter. Leave an inch and a half to fold over and hem the bottom.

Cut a strip of the coordinating fabric 6 inches tall by the same width as the tea towel.

Pin the coordinating fabric at the top of the tea towel right sides together.

Stitch along the top edge.

Open the coordinating fabric and press the seam open.

Fold over the sides twice and iron them in place. Fold up the bottom edge twice and iron it to hold the fold.

Stitch along the front side to hem the calendar. (I decided to hide the stitching in the white stripe, which is why I stitched from the front side.)

A little cleaner looking, don’t you think?

Fold over the top coordinating fabric 1/4″ and press it with the iron. Fold the fabric over again and line up the top edge with the seam. Press the fold with the iron.

Stitch 1/4″ up from the seam to form the pole pocket.

Slide the dowel rod into the pole pocket and tie a ribbon onto both sides of the tea towel.

Hang the tea towel up and enjoy. Or give it to a friend as a gift. My boys saw these calendars and are trying to convince me to make them each one. So much for having a few extras for last minute gifts .

For the woodland creatures calendar, I used a branch and rope instead of the dowel and ribbon.

A little more woodsy, don’t you think? I think this handy gal might need her own calendar in her office.

Don’t forget to enter to win a $75 gift card from Lowe’s! A winner will be chosen on Friday.

AND stick around for more 15 minute DIY Gift Ideas this week and share your own ideas on Friday at the link party. Toodle-loo!

Disclosure: I was not paid to mention Spoonflower in this post. I just think they are a cool company with a unique offering.