DIY Chalk Paint Dye Dish Towels

I think I mentioned to you once before about how mesmerized I am by the process of dying textiles using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Well I still am. Today I bring you the dead easiest DIY to revive your dingy dish towels. Because I know you have them and because you know I love a dead easy DIY . Let's jump right to it.

Yikes there they are. These former favourite tea towels were looking sad and yellowed. But I hatched a plan to transform them into Kinfolky-Scandi moody grey marvels. 

Here's the magic elixir: Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite, which I used mostly because I already had some on hand, as you can see from the well-used can.

Step 1: Create the Dye Bath

Fill a bucket with enough water to submerge your tea towels. I was dying a few, so I filled a regular sized galvanized bucket about half-full. Add a few glugs of paint. Yes, it's that scientific folks — a few glugs. Stir well to break up any globs of paint to ensure even dying. 

Step 2: Add Dishtowels

Submerge dish towels into the dye bath and stir well to ensure all of the textiles are coated with the dye bath. Allow to soak for 10 to 15 minutes.

Step 3: Remove and Allow to Dry

Work the dye well into the textiles by swishing them around, then squeezing and wringing them. Wring out excess water and hand textiles to dry. Once dry, dampen them again and then dry in a hot dryer, which will set the colour to make it more colourfast and will make to dish towels soft to the touch. I know it seem counterintuitive. You'd swear that adding a paint-based dye solution to textiles would make them stiffen up but the opposite is true. 

Step 4: Enjoy

I like setting a summer barbecue table with dish towels as napkins — all the better to mop up the big messes of corn on the cob, juicy burgers and, lobstaaaaahh!