How to Make Dish Towels With Your Own Fabric

Sew your own dish towels

Handmade dish towels make excellent wedding and housewarming gifts. They're easy to make and they'll add a handmade touch to any kitchen. Homemade towels aren't only good for ornamental use. If you make your dish towels from absorbent cotton, linen or hemp fabric, they'll work just as well as the department store variety. Sewing your own dish towels is a great way to practice hemming; once you make a few, you'll be on your way to sewing hems like a professional seamstress.

Things You'll Need

• Fabric (linen, cotton or hemp)
• Mild laundry detergent
• Iron
• Clear acrylic ruler
• Quilter's chalk
• Rotary cutting tool
• Sewing pins
• Cotton quilting thread
• Sewing needle
• Sharp scissors

Instructions

1. Wash the fabric with a mild laundry detergent and dry; do not use fabric softener.

2. Iron the fabric to smooth any wrinkles and creases.

3. Measure 16 inches across the width of the fabric, and then measure 27 inches along the height of the fabric. Mark your measurements with quilter's chalk.

4. Cut a 16-inch-by-27-inch rectangle from the fabric, using your marks as guides. To make the most accurate cuts, align a clear acrylic ruler along each marked measurement and use it to guide your rotary cutter across the fabric.

5. Fold the short sides of the rectangle 1/2 inch inward and press with an iron to set the fold.

6. Fold the long sides in 1/2 inch and press.

7. Fold the long sides in 1/2 inch and press.

8. Turn the long sides in 1/2 inch more and press. This should conceal the remaining raw edges.

9. Pin the folded edges into place with straight pins; secure a pin into the fabric layers about every 1/2 inch.

10. Thread a sharp sewing needle with a length of cotton quilting thread and begin sewing your dish cloth.

11. Sew the hems in place using a back stitch. To sew a back stitch, make a 1/8 inch long stitch, sewing from the back of the fabric (the side toward which you made your folds) through the front and back down, pierce the fabric again, about 1/8 away from the end of the first stitch and sew back into the fabric at the end of the first stitch. Continue sewing along the edge of the towel, leaving a 1/2-seam allowance around the edges.

12. Trim any long threads with a pair of sharp scissors.

Tips & Warnings

• You can use a number of techniques to dress up your homemade towels. Before you hem the towels, you can sew on a strip of printed twill near the towel's top and bottom, using an edge stitch. If you want to give your towels a vintage look, embroider monograms or floral designs near the towel's bottom edge. You can also cut stencils from freezer paper and use them to print designs along the top or bottom of your towels.

References

• The Purl Bee: Quick Dish Towels
• Perestroika Designs: Hand Stitching

Resources

• Needle 'N Thread: Basic Embroidery Stitches
• Reynolds: Ideal Stencil