Sometimes, I like to craft things not using wool felt! I know, don’t faint from the shock. One glance around this website and you’d think wool felt is the only fabric I own! But on occasion I pull out some pretty prints and create something just for fun, just for me. These DIY hand towels for my kitchen are just such a project, but I thought I’d share what I did in case you’re looking for an easy way to add some playful colour to your space too!
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I’ve been using the same kitchen towels for the last decade, which I had upcycled out of a bath towel that was a bit tired a decade ago. Now the kitchen towels are downright exhausted and they desperately need replacing too.
But I’m on a mission to add more whimsy into my space, so I wanted my new kitchen towels to have a little personality and also coordinate with my blue kitchen cupboards. Cue my stash of fabric remnants!
This is a great project for using up pretty cotton pieces you’ve been saving in your stash. Or for fussy cutting some cute prints. I have so many fabric pieces that I can’t bear to part with, so I’m happy to find any opportunity to use them up!
I was generously gifted this beautiful navy blue cotton terry cloth to create these towels with. Fabric Wholesale Direct has a large selection of fabrics and trims to choose from, in fact I have a few more goodies from them I’m excited to use. There are some adorable ginghams in their cotton collection that I have my eye on!
Regardless of being gifted a product though, I would only recommend the product if I was truly happy with it and believed it would be a quality item to add to your own crafting stores as well! The terry cloth is absolutely lovely, the colour true to what was represented on the website, and the quality excellent.
I’m really pleased with how these towels turned out, they look so sweet in my kitchen! They’d be equally at home in a bathroom or used for camping.
Gather Materials
Here’s what you’ll need to make a pretty diy hand towel for your kitchen or bathroom:
Terry Cloth – Cut to 14″ x 26″ per towel
Quilting Cotton Pieces – Cut in 2.5″ x 2.5″ squares – 14 squares per towel
Quilting Cotton Strip – 2″ wide x approx 85″-90″ long (per towel)
Straight Pins
Scissors
Quilting rulers – I used this little square
Rotary Cutter – Like this one
Sewing Machine
Matching Sewing Thread
The nature of terry cloth is that it will in fact make a terrible mess all over your work surface and floor after it’s been cut. There’s no avoiding this, just be ready to vacuum when you’re finished sewing!
And somehow this isn’t even my first hand towel DIY! Haha, a few years ago I upcycled some Christmas towels using fabric hexies. And one of my most popular posts remains this toothbrush travel wrap I made with another tired towel.
Gosh, I guess this will be my first towel project using brand new material! Haha
How to Sew a Hand Towel
The 2.5″ fabric squares are used to create a decorative block to adorn the towel.
First, decide on the order placement of each square.
Sew 7 squares together into a strip, using a 1/4″ seam allowance for each join. Press all the seams open.
Pin the two strips together, making sure to line up all the seam intersections.
Stitch the strips together into a block with a 1/4″ seam allowance.
Press the seam open. Fold down and press a 1/4″ of the fabric along the top and bottom lengths of the block.
Pin the block to the towel, positioning the bottom edge of the block at 4″ up from the bottom of the towel.
Topstitch the block in place around all four sides, as close to the edge as possible, around 1/16″.
After I finished my towels I realized I could have added some lines of quilting to the block to give it more texture. It was a missed opportunity. So now would be the time to add some quilting if you’d like!
Note: There are a few different ways to attach binding. Feel free to use whatever method you prefer if it differs from what I did.
Prep the binding by first pressing it in half lengthwise. Open up the strip, fold one raw edge in towards the center press line and press again.
You will now have press lines at 1/2″ from one edge and down the center at 1″ from the edges.
Line up the edges of the right side of the binding and the wrong side of the towel.
Pin the binding to the towel and stitch it as shown with a 3/8″ seam allowance.
I did a mitred technique at the corners, for which there are many tutorials on youtube that can explain the method better than I could! I only dabble in quilty type projects, I’m not a pro. 😛
Wrap the binding around the raw edges to the right side of the towel. Pin it in place so that the previous stitch line is hidden underneath the binding.
Topstitch the binding as close to the edge as possible.
Trim all the threads, give the towel a big shake, and you’re done! (well, besides all the vacuuming, lol)
DIY Hand Towels
You could also scale these DIY hand towels up and do bath or beach towels, or scale them down for wash cloths instead. It just goes to show that it’s possible to add even the smallest fabric remnants to a project to bring it to life!
Unfortunately, only a small dent was made in my fabric stash, so I must go dream up some new projects to use more of it! Oh darn. 😀
Happy crafting,
xo
