How to make an embellished guest towel

Today I want to show you how to make another quick and easy project that makes a great gift or decoration for your bathroom.

All you need is a towel and one or two fabrics for the embellishment.

First measure your towel. Mine is 15.5 inches wide. Therefore my main fabric needs to be 2 to 3 inches wider and so I cut an 18 x 8.5 in rectangle (finished height of the strip will be 8 inches). For the ruffles on the bottom cut a strip that is twice as long as your towel is wide and twice as high as you want your ruffles to be plus 1/2 an inch for seam allowance. My strip is 32x4 inches. To figure out the right height of your main fabric and the ruffles lay your towel on the table and place the fabrics on it. Measure the heights when you like the proportions and remember to add seam allowance. You can match fabrics like I did or just use one fabric for both pieces.

Start by ironing the long strip in half lengthwise.

Then sew two parallel lines of straight stitches at at least 4 to 5 stitch length close to the rough edges.

Now use the bobbin threads on both sides to ruffle the fabric until it is of the same length as your rectangle (for more information on how to make ruffled strips have a look at this tutorial).

When done pin your ruffled strip to a long side of the rectangle right side to right side and sew in place.
Remove the two parallel stitchings you used for ruffling the strip.

Iron the seam allowance of the rectangle towards the inside on the remaining three sides.

Place the rectangle on your towel right side up and pin it in place. Make sure that the seam attaching the ruffles is covered by the towel and wrap the remaining fabric on both sides around the edge of the towel.  

Sew the rectangle in place with a simple straight stitch close to the edge all the way around the whole piece and fix your seam at the beginning and at the end with a couple of backstitches.

 When done fold the edge of the ruffles into a hem so that the raw edge is hidden inside the double fold and stitch closed.

 I like to use matching threads and therefore match the colour of the upper thread with the the fabric on the front and the bobbin thread with the towel on the back. 

 Here are two more examples
 of finished towels.






Have you made a project following this tutorial? Let me know what you think. Did you like it? Was it easy to understand and to follow? Do you have any suggestions?
Write a comment or send me an email using the contact form at the bottom of the page. 


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