How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

 

I love decorating my kitchen with holiday dish towels so I decided to make a few for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Easter. This is such a simple project.  You can make these holiday dish towels for any holiday.  They make perfect gifts as well.  There are so many different patterns and designs that you can choose from.  I chose just a few for my project.  I chose to use a linen look-a-like fabric for my towels as I had some on hand that fit perfectly for this project but you could purchase some plain linen towels to create yours.  To complete this project you just need to add some embellishments and applique following these step-by-step instructions.

I, of course, used remnants from my stash to make this project but if you need fabrics for your project head over to Hobby Lobby and Fabric.com to get exactly what you need in a short amount of time.  They have such a wide array of choices that you can make your holiday dish towels exactly the way you want them.  This post contains affiliate links that if you click on them and make a purchase I may receive a small  commission at no extra cost to you.

What you will Need:

• Patterns
• 16″ x 24″ piece of linen per towel or plain linen towels
• Scraps of each of your applique fabrics
• Fusible webbing
• 3″ x 40″ piece of fabric for ruffles
• Ric rac
• Trim (Optional)

Step 1: How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

Cut your linen fabric to the dimensions that you want.  I chose 16″ x 24″ for each of my towels.

Step 2: How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

Fold all four sides to the wrong side of the towel by 1/2″ and press.  Fold again another 1/2″  and press.  Using matching thread stitch all four sides.  I actually stitched along the outside fold and the inside fold so there were two lines of stitching around my towel.  You don’t need to do that but I found it to be sturdier and more professional looking.  You should have a towel that has no raw edges and four neat sides.

Step 3: How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

Choose the pattern that you wish to applique to your towel.  I chose some Easter eggs for this example.  The process will be the same for all of your designs.  Pick the fabrics you want for your eggs.  Cut each fabric a little larger than your egg.

Step 4: How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

Iron fusible webbing to the back of each fabric piece.  Cut out the egg shapes. Remove the paper backing from each of the eggs and place the eggs along the bottom of your dish towel about 2 1/2″ from the bottom. Press each egg individually where you would like them to be.

Ironing is an important part of all sewing but particularly in applique.  I have a Panasonic cordless iron that I use everyday for the posts here at Sew Very Crafty and for my personal sewing. I cannot recommend this iron highly enough.  After a year of use I absolutely love it. Having a cordless iron has been an absolute Godsend to me.  I purchased mine from an affiliate of mine, Sewing Machines Plus, for a very good price and with free shipping.  If you are in the market for a new cordless iron head over to Sewing Machines Plus and take a look at this one.  It is a gem.  This post contains affiliate links that if you click on them and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Step 5: How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

You will now stitch around the eggs using a zig zag stitch or straight stitch whichever you prefer.  I chose to use a zig zag stitch for my eggs.

Step 6: How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

Add the ruffles to the bottom of your towel.  Start by hemming the 3″ x 40″ piece of fabric around the two short sides and one long side.

Step 7: How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

Stitch a gathering stitch along the unfinished raw edge.  I just increased my stitch length to 5.0 leaving long tails at the beginning and end of the fabric.  Pull the thread so that the fabric gathers to the same width as the towel.  Make sure that the fabric gathers are evenly spaced.

Step 8: How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

Sew the gathered fabric to the bottom of the towel right sides together using a 1/2″ seam allowance. Press the ruffle toward the bottom of the towel.

Step 9: How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

Add some ric rac to the space between the eggs and the ruffle. Extend the ric rac to the back of the towel for a clean finish. If you have never sewn ric rac. It is a fairly simple process. Just keep in mind that there is a “sweet” spot that runs down the center of the ric rac between the waves.  Keep your needle on this spot and sew slowly and steadily and you will be able to attach the ric rac with no trouble at all.

Step 10: How to Make Holiday Dish Towels

You can add some trim to the seam you created when you added the ruffle if you like  You have now finished your holiday dish towel.

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