Ruffled Dishcloth

As my trusty followers know, I'm working on a little segment known as Christmas in July.  My kitchen can always use some festooning during the holidays so I wanted to try my hand at some festooned dish towels.  I'm usually not much of a fan of commercially sold holiday dish towels.  They're typically hum drum and sometimes even boarderline kooky.  I've definately seen some great ones, but didn't find their price tag really all that great.  But, here's a little solution that even a novice sewer can enjoy.  Seriously, this would be a fantastic project for a novice sewer.  First of all, no one has to WEAR it!  It's not going to hang on your windows for a decade.  It's just a dish towell.  Something you'll probably toss in a couple seasons.  Unless of course you decide to frame it. 

Here's the tutorial to prove just how simple they are.

Start with some absorbant fabric (white, colored, printed - whatever floats your boat)  Cottons are good.  Fold it on itself to cut an even rectangle.  The size isn't super important, use one of your old dish towels as a guide if you want. 

Then sew a 1/4" rolled hem on all four sides (fold in 1/4 " - iron - fold in 1/4" again - iron again - and sew.)

Next cut an approximately 2 inch wide strip of fabric for your ruffle.  It should be about twice as long as your dish towel is wide.  I had to stich together a couple of strips because my scrap of fabric wasn't long enough.  I just hid that seam inside one of my "ruffles"

Then go ahead and stich around all four edges of your ruffle piece about 1/4" inside the edge.  This allows it to fray some without completely unraveling and creating a stringy mess in your dryer.

Now comes the fun part.  When you sew on the "ruffle" simply free-form the gathers as you go. 

Next you can embellish more if desired with ribbon, buttons, ric rac, etc.

Here she is!

And just because I need a little more PINK in my life...

Now wasn't that easy!?

Check out the linky parties I've joined here.

10 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for linking up to my Holiday Open House! These are great and would make great gifts at Christmas time or housewarming or just because!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your holiday ideas!! Youre motivating me to try to make some more homemade presents for christmas! maybe even starting somewhat soon :)

    I just found your blog off The Answer is Chocolate, and Im now following. Keep the Christmas Ideas coming!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. These are so cute, it's a shame that sewing machines hate me!

    I've just joined the blogging world with an inkling to try selling some of my homemade Christmas decorations on a fledgling Etsy store this year. I'm hoping 4 months will be enough time to whip things into shape and these are wonderful inspiration!

    *Sorry for previous deletion ... there was a typo and I'm a bit fastidious!*

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are so cute. I need to get myself a sewing machine. I think I might actually be able to do this.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is something I'm interested in doing something like this to have some Christmas touches in my kitchen and this is simple enough. Good share! I found you on Carol's Christmas in July and I'm following your blog for sure! I'm #22 on the link and would love it if you would follow my blog too so we could become blogging buddies. You can't have too many of thoses, right? Again thanks - the tutorial was great!

    Haupi
    http://hauplight.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love these towels! Love my vinyl family tree I purchased from you. I will send you a picture of what I did with mine. 3 of my friends want to order one after seeing mine this past weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  8. These are the cutiest ever!
    Thank you for sharing!
    Have a good day!
    Leticia
    www.msbinglesvintagechristmas.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. you are my hero- I feel like I can barely keep it together this summer and you have the time and energy to make all these adorable craft projects- oh, and Logan still talks about your little guy all.the.time

    ReplyDelete