Hand Towel Tutorial - A Retrospective Give Away.

A lot of blogs do give aways and it is true that giving is just as nice as receiving.

Most blogs I see, it's the leave a comment and one will be randomly picked etc etc. and for whatever reason the desired outcome is increased traffic to the blog. So fair enough if you have sponsors or want more visitors.

I'm inclined to be contrary and so my give away is rather back handed, in that, it has already happened but you didn't know about it! Ha!

Actually it was more a spontaneous motivation of delight.

Sarah from If Only I Had Chocolate (and doesn't that blog name just suck you right in?) came back some time after the fact to my post Wash Your Wash Cloths and shared some thoughts which inspired me share the love right back. Luckily Sarah is having a bit of an affair with red and white at the moment (check out some of the beautiful hand work while you are at her blog) and I could accommodate her penchant easily from my stash.

What I did want to share with you was the hand towel I made to go with the tea towel. It is more usual to see them with the crocheted tops but my Step-mother showed me how she does these machine stitched tops and I love them. I was tempted to dress it with some black ric rac but thought it might be too heavy for Sarah's kitchen tastes. But think! You can be creative with the button and add trims or you can add embroidery to the panel. Lots of scope.

All this takes is a scrap of toweling and a scrap of fabric and a button! Put this on your Christmas home making gift list for sure.

(as a guide - this is an A4 sheet folded in half)

(You know you can click on these photos and get the zoom tool for the measurements right?)

So basically sew right sides together around the marked line (leaving the bottom edge) and turn right side out. Press with an iron. Fold your hand towel in little pleats (remembering you have to be able to sew through the layers) and pin one of the lower edges of the tab top to the top of the towel. sew across. The other edge of the tab top is now turned under like a small hem and sewn with a top stitch to the towel top again.

Now make a button hole in the top-most pointy end and attach button for hanging.

I hope that's clearer than mud...if not msg me and I will have to do a step by step but if you have some basic sewing experience you should be able to get the hang of it.