Thursday, February 3, 2011

New Style of Hand Towel

A week ago my MIL sent me a link to an etsy store (The Spunky Diva) that had really cool Stay-Put hand towels for the kitchen. After thoroughly examining all of her pictures, I decided to attempt making one myself!
One corner is monogrammed. On the opposite corner and opposite side of the towel, I appliqued a fabric square and stitched an "L" shaped opening.
I digitized the "L" shaped opening, so that was done by embroidery machine. It's kind of like a big button hole... once it was done stitching I cut it open. Worked nicely!
For the monogram I picked the Heart A Plenty font from 8 Claws and a Paw.
I'm really pleased with how this turned out! And it has already passed the Dashiell test. This afternoon he ran up to it, gave it a hug, called it "cute" and then yanked with all his might. It certainly lived up to it's name -- it stayed put! :) No more towels on the floor, woo-hoo! And amazingly enough, it stays put when I use it, too. I have a bad habit of taking a towel off of the rod and tossing it aside, then the next time I need to dry my hands, I'm hunting for a towel.

Before sharing pictures I searched through the Spunky Diva blog to see if she had posted a tutorial to direct you to. I also sent her a quick email to let her know I was going to be blogging about her fantastic towels, and she replied so quickly! Turns out she was inspired by the Topsy Towel tutorial on Embroidery Library. (Edited 1/21/13 to add: AND I just discovered that years ago someone else digitized the L-shaped buttonhole and posted it as a freebie on SewForum! I have not used that design, but check it out.)

Go check out her blog, lots of fun stuff! My favorite post is a tutorial for kitchen curtains I found back in September. Now, I've make valances before, but what I loved was the FABRIC! I've been searching for the perfect fabric to make curtains for my kitchen (we have now lived here 2.5 years, it's about time...) and I think this is it. I am proud to say I have finally ordered it and I'm anxious for it to arrive. So thank you, Kimberlee, for inspiring new decor in my kitchen, in two different ways!! :)  I'll post pictures once I make a curtain AND matching Stay-Put towels!

10 comments:

  1. That looks really easy to make, but looks so fabulous! I'll have to try my hand at these sometime soon!

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  2. So cute! Did you square up you towel like the tutorial from embroidery librart

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  3. C. Chang,
    no I did not square it up. I felt like that was going to make the towel so short that it would not be very functional.
    If the towel is rectangular, it doesn't hang perfectly straight. So just be aware of that.
    Thanks for stopping by!

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  4. Would you be willing to share your "L" shaped button hole? I tried the one on SewForum, but I can only do 1 4x4 & that one is 4.44".
    Thanks so much!

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  5. Do you sale the button hole pattern?

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  6. Egglady, no, I do not sell the embroidery design file. It is available as a free download on SewForum.com, which is free to join. Please see the link in the blog post.

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  7. Boa tarde! Gostaria de saber mais detalhes. As medidas e onde colocar esse tecido? No meio ou em uma das pontas. Muito obrigada

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  8. I just saw your stay-put towel and it is so cute! I teach hand-sewing during craft time to fifth graders. Is this something that could be sewn by hand? I was having a hard time understanding what you did; just sew a fabric square in the corner of the towel, and cut a slit in it? Please help with any advice.

    Thanks,
    Sara

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  9. Sara, I apologize for the delayed response. My Stay-Put towel is loosely based on this tutorial from Embroidery Library. It will give you more exact dimensions/directions that you may be able to modify from machine sewing to hand sewing: http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/ELProjects/Simpleproduct_ELP.aspx?productid=PR1491

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  10. I love this idea!! What type of kitchen towel did you use?
    Thanks,
    Lisa

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