Kitchen Towel Tutorial

I thought I'd put together a little tutorial for those who asked how my kitchen towels were made in my Fall into Fall Giveaway.

If you need a quick gift that you can make in less than 20 minutes this could be your thing!

First get in your car and drive down to a store that sells kitchen things. Pick out a small towel with a coordinating pot holder. They often come as a set sold together.

Then drive over to your grandma's house and steal....borrow her button collection. If you happen to have your own button collection visit your grandma anyways and give her a hug.

You'll need a button with a shank like this.

Take your towel to the ironing board and fold it in half width-wise and press the fold with the iron. This will give you a guide on where to put your gathering stitches.

Next get about 40" of thread on a sewing needle. I used my hand quilting thread but any good tread will work. If you don't double your thread 20" will be plenty.

Either knot the end off or double your tread, put the cut ends through the eye, take a stitch and then put the needle through the loop that's at the end of the thread. Clear as mud right?

All you need is to make sure your thread is secure at the side of the towel and isn't going to come out when you gather the towel. Does this picture help?

Take some stitches all the way across the towel on the fold you made.

When you reach the other side of the towel pull the thread until the towel is gathered. You can either measure your pot holder (mine was 6") or just lay it on top of the towel and make sure the towel is gathered the to same width. Once you've got it the right size make a knot in the thread, close to the towel.

Center the middle of the pot holder on the gathered part of the towel. Take it to the sewing machine and stitch down the middle of the pot holder and towel. Back stitch at the beginning and end.

Snip your threads. If your gathered stitches show pull them out. They shouldn't show unless you used that bright pink thread you've been saving for something special. ;o)

Track down your button and sew it to the side of the pot holder that was opposite the loop.

Fold the pot holder up and loop the loop around the button.

Now go back to your grandma's to return her buttons and use her oven door handle to model your lovely towel. You were making it for her anyways weren't you?

My oven door handle is completely attached to the oven so these towels don't work for me but they make a great gift for others!

And there you have it, a lovely gift! Wouldn't these be great with Christmas towels?