Transformation of a Cooktown Teatowel

A number of weeks ago my friend asked me to make her something out of a brand new teatowel that had been given to her as a souveneir from another friends' stay in Cooktown. This photo does not do justice to the pure whiteness of this towel. It was clean and crisply simple with it's white and brown.

Sorry but totally not my cup of tea. I couldn't get anything in my huge store of fabrics to enhance this perfect towel. Fortunately, Becky had given me carte blanche when it came to design, function, etc.

So I proceeded to wreck the towel. I used Parisian essence, purging tea and green food colouring. Then I remembered that in the good old days of sepia photos people would touch up their pictures with a bit of colour. Out came the craft paints and textile medium and I dabbed. I especially wanted those brown palms to turn green. Well, that was beyond me but I did manage to add some colour. Finally, that perfect teatowel began to feel a little older and time travelled.

That's when the scissors and thread finally came into their own. Using Clutterpunk's directions for machine sketching I added the Brunswick green accents to the building.
Add some ric-rac, a bit of lace and an old doily as well as some fabric for the inside and I now had two folders to hand back to my friend.

Nothing like wrecking a product to make it better!!