Well, hello! Today I will share a simple (and fun) little tutorial on how to make a patchwork dish towel. The strip of patchwork is a perfect opportunity to customize for any holiday....or make one out of your favorite color scheme, as I did here. This is a great way to use up those mini charm packs that you may collect, but aren't quite certain what to do with. Scraps from the scrap bins are a great option, too. Always!
What you will need:
one flour sack dish towel (mine is about 30" square)
15 2.5" squares (number of squares may vary depending on the width of your dishtowel)
white thread
working sewing machine
Assembly:
All seam allowances are 1/4" unless otherwise noted.
Sew the 2.5" squares end to end to make a patchwork strip. Press seams to the side. Make sure that the strip is at least 1/2" longer than the width of your towel.
Align the patchwork with the edge of the towel. Pin in place.
Find the starting point for your seam. Start 1/4" seam from the top of the towel and 1/4" in from the right hand side. You may want to mark this point with a pencil or water soluble pen. (See photo for starting point.) Sew along the right side of the patchwork.
Stop sewing 1/4" from the bottom edge of the towel.
Press the patchwork strip away from the edge of the towel.
Trim ends of patchwork so they extend about 1/4" on each end. (My dish towel is a little wonky, so I'm just following the edges as they are.)
Fold the patchwork down and finger press the raw edges up about 1/4". Press seam with a hot iron.
Fold the patchwork strip back up. Tuck in all raw edges and pin in place.
Use a scant seam allowance to top stitch around the entire patchwork strip. I didn't sew on each seam within the patchwork strip, but you could if you wanted to! Back stitch a few stitches at the beginning/end of your seam.
The back looks nice and tidy because I used white thread....
and the front is pretty cute, too!
Here's a close up of the top stitching.
I would recommend making a bunch....some to keep and some for gifts! I can't guarantee that this will make doing dishes more fun, but it should make your kitchen a bit more cheery. :) I hope you have fun with this tutorial!
Oh, and this is scrap project #113. Yay!!
Happy Monday to you!
26 comments:
Another great tutorial for making adorable things with your scraps! Thanks for sharing!
You have the most wonderful ideas. Thanks for sharing with us again. I am going to do these tomorrow. What great Christmas gifts these will make. genie
I love making my own decorated dish towels but I'm having trouble finding plain white linen towels. Can you share where you purchased yours.
Robin Quilts, etc.,
I found mine at Mills Fleet Farm, which is a farm store that has a decent kitchen/canning section. Otherwise you could look in a craft store, quilt shop or if all else fails, amazon sells them! I hope that helps!
AJ
Oh my gosh!! This is perfect! I have had to forego any quilting or sewing for myself for the last several weeks because I am making patchwork vests for the 14 boys in my daughter's singing group. The front of the vests are pieced from about 15 different Christmas prints. While the patchwork portion has been quick and easy piecing, the vest construction (simple as it is) has been a thorn in my side. Flimsy pattern piece, cutting with a scissors, PINS all over...ick. Give me my rotary cutter and rulers any day! However, the project is leaving me with an abundance of itty bitty scraps of adorable holiday prints. How cute are they going to be stitched into sweet kitchen towels? Eeeeeeee! So. Cute! Thanks for the quick tutorial. Can't wait to hand over the vests to the costume lady (I am a mere parent volunteer, thank goodness) so I can start some fun holiday gifts!! P.S. I LOVE that you shop at Mill's Fleet Farm. We have then in Wisconsin, too. They were an integral part of my childhood and it's still where I go to look for the stuff I can't find anywhere else.
I love this idea..... what a great gift a set of these will make.....hmmmm I think I know what my sister is getting for Christmas now ... thanks for posting.
Www.hoosierstitcher.blogspot.com
So simple but brilliant. A quick, easy, and inexpensive way to do holiday dish towels that you can actually use on the dishes!
Love dish towels with scraps. Thanks for the reminder I should make some more up.
Thank you! So cute, and I do have lots of those mini charm packs!
Great idea, Amanda - planning on starting some of these today, thanks to you:)
great way to brighten up a towel, would look nice on plain bedding too
Such a sweet project and great for gifts. I rarely think to make smaller projects and they are usually so simple.
Thank-you for sharing this! the timing is just perfect for me as I just yesterday bought a few towels to add a patchwork strip to for my step mother, and I was working out in my head how to go about it. This post confirmed my suspicions, so I can proceed more confidently.
Hmmm. I bet this would be even cuter than it already is, if I made it in some of my (YOUR) good neighbors fabric! Gotta get me some flour sacks :)
This would also look really cute on the side of a plain white pillowcase!
Those are so much fun - my aunt did that for us for years, and I do them on bath towels - that way I know which towel is which kids ( I choose scraps in their favorite colors)
So cute and fairly quick too. They would be great for Christmas gifts with Christmas scrappy fabrics. Thank you for sharing!
How timely. I was asked to make some 'kittie/cat" items to put under a "cat theme". I was going to embellish two sets of kitchen towels with cat themed fabric that I had already. I will try to post mine when I get done this week. Great idea.
Love these! Thanks for sharing...what a fun way to dress up the kitchen and make some fun. Great gift idea too.
Such a cute idea! Thanks a lot for the inspiration!
Love it! Reminds me of own of my own tutorials!
Love this idea. have a question tho. Instructions state to sew on the right side of the fabric but the photo clearly shows sewing on the wrong side. I don't get it. Help!
A decorative holiday strip of fabric is really cool to sew on hand towels that are our special holiday guest towels. I sew it in the recessed area on the hand towel.
~Judy
Thank you for sharing this idea. It is a perfect hostess gift! I've ordered a batch of tea towels!
Sue Laufer,
I apologize for the misunderstanding. The fabric is right side down, wrong side up. The seam line will be on the right hand side of the fabric, not the left hand side. I hope that clears things up!
Amanda Jean
Thank you Amanda Jean! :)
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