Kitchen Towels--Sixth Finish 2nd Quarter Finish-A-Long 2018

Zig zagging the rick rack to the strip

After my last finish, I decided I wanted to tackle an easier project. I decided to stitch the four kitchen towels that were goal number 14 on my 2nd Quarter Finish-A-Long list.

Last fall, I saw a sample towel on display at Craft Warehouse. I was smitten enough to buy supplies to make tea towels for gift giving. My plan was to stitch the kitchen towels for Christmas gifts. Since I'm posting about the towels now, it's clear I didn't finish them last Christmas! I decided, however, not to have the supplies hanging about for another year!

Ready for hand stitching

I preshrunk the linen towels, the cotton fabric and large rick rack that I used to trim the towels. The directions stated I needed two fat quarters to make the project. I bought half a yard of two prints and half a yard each of black and red rick rack.  The linen towels shrunk over an inch so I was glad to have washed them before adding the trims.

I cut a 3 1/2 inch strip of one fabric and stitched a piece of rick rack to the bottom of the strip. I also stitched a folded 1 1/4 inch coordinating strip of fabric to the top on the strip. I added this to half of the towel. (I cut the towel in half.) I cut a "handle" from the coordinating strip and following the directions, I also cut a piece of batting. After I had placed the layers right sides together, I machine stitched around the outer edge, turned and pressed the "handle." I hand stitched this handle to the top of the towel.

The four finished towels ready for kitchen duty!

I added some top stitching around the handle edge, stitched a buttonhole, cut it and added a button. The buttons came from my grandmother's button box. I have no idea how old they are; but, she would be tickled that I found a use for them.

Supplies for another two towels

Most of the buttons in my grandmother's button box were "saved" buttons. She would cut the buttons off of used clothing and sometimes she would string the buttons from that garment on a cord/thread so the buttons were together and ready for future project! The used clothing would be cut into rags or strips to tie the tomato plants to keep them from falling over.

For the four towels, I used about 1/2 yard of fabric. I have used 12 1/2 yards from my stash and I have 37 1/2 yards to go to achieve my goal of using 50 yards from my stash this year. This is my sixth finish for the quarter. I now have four great gifts for Christmas 2018!

Because I stitched these when I had five to fifteen minutes to sew, I didn't track how much time it actually took me to make all four! I've been working many days and also some full days so my studio time has been limited.

As I stitched this project, I discovered that I have one more yellow linen towel so I can make two more kitchen towels. (I lost track of how many towels I actually purchased!)

I don't have enough of the chicken wire fabric to make two "handles." I may have a great fabric hanging out in my stash. My fingers are crossed. In the meantime, I have the leftover bits, towel, pattern and directions gathered in a zip lock bag.

I have some other linen towels too. These will wait for another time though as I've lots of other projects on my list!