Why Not? Wednesday: Patriotic Dish Towels

There are never too many ways to display your patriotism, right? This is a quick, easy-to-sew project for an afternoon or on the weekend.

This all started with a completely impromptu stop at the fabric store after I picked my car up from the shop. Previously, I had purchased the dish towels in case I wanted to stencil on them or something. They were sitting around and visually nagging at me to create. I wasn’t planning to make this a post, but I thought, “Why not?” So here is a mid-week bonus post for you with an idea for a quick project.

A fun and colorful display of the good ol’ Red, White, and Blue adds a touch of whimsy to kitchen chores. Left over patriotic trim and ribbon, with a few added notions bought for 50% off at JoAnn’s, would dress up some plain flour sack dish towels just nicely. I didn’t measure a thing. I simply laid out the ribbon, pinned it, and sewed it on to the pre-washed dish towel. That’s all there was to it.

SUPPLY LIST

Pre-washed dish towel(s)
Patriotic Ribbon
Red, Blue, Gold, etc trims
Sewing machine
Coordinating thread
Pins

Instructions:

Step 1:

First, wash and dry your dish towels. If the towels are 100% cotton, you want them to shrink prior to adding any trims. Next, press towels flat with a hot iron.

Step 2:

Before you sew, lay out your trim to decide what pattern you like best. I decided to go crazy and add lots of different trims to each towel. Why not?

TIP: If some of the ribbon has wired edges like mine did, simply pull out the wire from the cut edge of ribbon. It’s really easy to do.

Grab the little wire that sticks out from your cut piece of ribbon and pull on it. The wire will pull out and leave your ribbon wire free, and washable.

Step 3:

Pin your trim to the towel. I started with the bottom hem and worked my way up. Fold the trim over the side edges of the towel and pin in place.

Lay out your ribbon and trim to find a pattern most pleasing to you. Pin it in place, starting with the bottom hem and working your way up.

Step 4:

You’re nearly done! Stitch along edges of trim with coordinating thread. I used white bobbin thread so the back side of the towel remained consistent with color. (But seriously, is anyone really going to check out and comment about your thread choice on the back of a dish towel? If they do, demote their friend status. No one needs that kind of negativity, haha.)

Completed Patriotic Dish Towels. Adorable!

Boom! All done. You now have amazing dish towels that you didn’t even know you needed in your kitchen. Mine are super impractical as hard working dish towels, but sometimes you need that in your life. Right? These would make a great hostess gift for any Fourth of July get together currently in the works. Enjoy your fast, easy, and fun patriotic dish towel project that is another way to make a house a home. 💙

Why Not? Wednesday: Patriotic Dish Towels

SUPPLY LIST

Instructions:

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Published by Lisa Nielsen

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