Hanging Hand Towels

These turned out so nice, makes me wish I'd used better quality towels. However it was the three Dollar Tree towels that gave me the inspiration in the first place. I was there to pick up some $1 tape measures to use in making "snap shut" bags as shown in this tutorial (I guess I need some duct tape, too). Here are my first set of hanging towels. I still have to put in the buttonholes and sew on the buttons, but you get the idea.

I made them a little different than was shown in the tutorial. I didn't have quite enough of the produce print fabric to cut out all the patterns pieces. 

I opted not to tape the 2 pattern pieces together but to cut the fabric pieces and sew them together with 1/2" seams. This allowed me to use a plain green on the backside.

I also chose to use fusible interfacing instead of fleece. This added some stability without adding a lot of bulk. Besides, I have a bunch of old interfacing that's probably been around since the 70's. I need to use it up.

The finished tops. First the front and then the back. I used a 3/4" seam at the opening because I wanted as much of the cute fabric to show as possible.

Now to insert the half towel. First I added some pleats so the top measures 6" wide. I pinned the pleats in place and secured them with 2 rows of basting stitches.

Now for the fun part. I inserted the pleated towel into the hanging top so that the basting stitches didn't show. I then edge stitched all around the topper which secured the towel in place. To make it extra strong I also used a decorative cam to sew some satin stitch diamonds a little ways from where the towel was inserted into the topper opening. I wanted to be sure that towel wasn't going to be pulled out while folks are drying their hands. The bow was an afterthought. I am sewing these on my vintage Kenmore because I want to take my Bernina in for a tune-up. Unfortunately my Kenmore seems to have a mind of its own as far as stitch length and width are concerned. The diamonds were an inconsistent size. The bows are meant to distract you from that fact. Is it working? The final picture shows the back. The green fabric helped stretch the pretty print.

I used cherry red thread for the edge stitching and will be using matching red buttons. Everything was from my stash except the $1 towel. Not bad for a quick and thrifty Christmas gift. Now to make the other 2 sets.