Hexie Christmas Tea Towel Tutorial

Construction:

• Using the hexagon template, draw around the first fabric. You may wish to fussy cut a motif, such as a snowflake or elf. Repeat this with your desired fabrics until you have cut out 11 hexagons.
  
• Using an acrylic ruler and rotary cutter, cut out the hexagons. Take care not to get your fingers caught!
• Next, pin a paper template to the center of your hexagon, ensuring that the motif is central. Using the glue pen, apply a small amount of glue to the edge of one side of the paper and fold down one edge. Rotate and repeat until all the hexagon edges are lightly glued down. Press front and back. Remove the pin.
  
• Lay out the hexagons in a pleasing arrangement, ready to stitch together.
• To sew the hexagons together, place two on the right sides and pinch them with your fingers. We will now use a ladder stitch to attach the two hexagons. Using a cotton thread with a knot on the end, bring the needle up beneath the seam allowance and come out in the corner of the front hexagon. Next, take the needle into the back hexagon and come up about 4mm long. Pull the thread through, take the needle down into the front hexagon, and then along 4mm and pull the needle through.
  
• Repeat until you’ve stitched one length of the hexagon, and add a few reinforcing stitches at the point where the corners of the two hexagons meet.
  
• Repeat for each hexagon until you’ve completed the row.
  
• Now, it’s time to remove the papers. Very carefully lift the seam allowances away from the paper, and carefully take the paper out.
  
• Iron the creases back in as you go along to ensure that the hexagons hold their shape. The good news is that you can reuse your hexagon paper templates for another project!
• Next, press your background strip under a 1/4” seam all around. Pin onto the tea towel, about 4” from the bottom edge.
  
• Using a sewing machine, stitch around the background strip close to the edge in a matching thread. Bury the threads in the seam of the tea towel.
• Finally, you need to attach your hexagon strip to the backing fabric. Place the hexies on the wrong side up and lay on an old piece of card or paper. Spray lightly with basting spray and adhere in position onto the background fabric. (If you don’t have basting spray, pin the hexagons to the backing fabric. )
• Using a straight stitch on the sewing machine, stitch all the way around the hexagons to secure them in place.
  
• Bury the threads between the background fabric and the tea towel.
• Give your tea towel a press, and find a suitable space in your kitchen to display your beautiful Christmas creation!