Appliqued Halloween Hand Towels

Adding a festive Halloween applique to a basic tea towel is a great way to add a bit of Halloween holiday cheer to your kitchen. These towels are excellent home decor options and can be done individually or as hand towel sets. Don't stop with your tea towels, either — create Halloween bath towels, guest towels, napkins and even your old washcloths!

Take your printed template and place it underneath your tea towel so that the design is positioned where you would like it to be appliqued. Roughly trace within the applique pieces using your washable marker or chalk pencil so that you will know where to place the cut pieces. If needed, do your tracing on a light box or in a bright window.

Pin the template on top of the fabric you will be appliqueing to the towel and carefully cut out the template shapes.

Pin the template to the tea towel, using your chalk/pen marks and placement guidelines.

Sew your fabric to the tea towel, removing the pins as you come to them. Use a dense zig-zag stitch (often called a satin stitch) to ensure that the edges of your fabric won't unravel.

If there are small details, consider stitching them instead of cutting very small pieces of fabric, as with the eyes of the ghost.

If you use a fabric that will not unravel, such as fleece or felt, you don't need to use a satin stitch and can instead use a straight stitch. Remember that synthetic fabrics (like fleece and craft felt) can't handle high temperatures. You can find and use wool felt, which will be safe to iron and use around hot pans.

Your options aren't limited to ghosts and witches. You can use designs for carved-up Halloween jack-o'-lanterns, black cats, Halloween skulls, haunted houses — the only limit is your imagination. Reach into the most ghoulish recesses of your mind to craft the spookiest Halloween dish towels you can.

Display your tea towels and enjoy the holiday cheer. Happy Halloween!