Since I had some fat quarters of fabric laying around, I thought I would try to find a simple sewing project to use it up. Fabric dish towels were the perfect project! It was a simple, beginner, straight line sewing project that used small strips of fabric. One fat quarter could not only make two dish towels but also a matching set of FANCY DISH GLOVES.
I went to Target and found some plain white dish towels.
The towels I used in this demonstration were the ones pictured above on the right. I also made some smaller ones using the towels on the left with some of the leftover fabric. Both work really well for this project. The kitchen towels were about three dollars each and the bar mop towels were six dollars for a pack of four.
Open up your towel and measure the width. I knew from the tag on the towel that mine measured 18 inches. Decide how thick of a band of fabric you want on your towel. I wanted mine to be about 4 inches (you will be pressing under a 1/2 inch on each side so add an extra inch). I cut two strips of my fabric that measured 5 x 19 inches (Dish towels are great in sets of two.)
Once you have your cut out your two strips, take them to an iron and press 1/2 inch around all the sides. To do this, lay them right side facing down.
Pictured above you see the fabric with the right side down and the sides of the fabric pressed in 1/2 inch. If you know how to make mitered corners, they would look nice here but I just pressed the long ends first, then folded the short ends and pressed them.
**If you were making a professional hem, you would first make a 1/4 inch fold and press, then 1/2 fold on top of that and press. You could certainly do that (just add and extra 1 and 1/2 inch seam allowance) but I cut out that extra step and it worked out just fine
Take the strip of fabric you just pressed and place it on the towel (pressed side down), then pin it to secure it before sewing it. You could put the bar of fabric higher on the towel but just make sure to measure the height where you put it so your towels match. These towels had a little ribbing around the edges so I used that as my guide to place the fabric. Now you just top stitch around the entire rectangle of fabric.
I used the edge of the presser foot as my guide and sewed around the entire perimeter if the fabric (this is a 3/8 inch allowance).
It's really that simple.
Pair it with some coordinating dish gloves and you have a really nice little gift.
Breakfast themed.
These are a great gift idea for a hostess or housewarming or just to add a practical but decorative element to your own kitchen or bathroom.
If you would like to use the fabric pictured here it is available for purchase at my Spoonflower shop HERE.
If you liked this simple sewing project, you may like A SIMPLE DRAWSTRING POUCH, HOW TO MAKE A RICE PACK, or A LAVENDER SACHET.
Thanks for stopping by.
Happy sewing!
Pam