Yes, I am looking for things to do every day while sheltering in at home.
I had taken my sewing machine out to sew masks and surgical caps for our local hospital, and knowing that I would not be going anywhere anytime soon, I left it out "in case" I wanted to sew something else.
However, the problem I encountered was that most of my sewing supplies and fabrics were either long gone to the local charity shop OR were already packed in one of the boxes in our basement and garage.
Ugh.
So, in desperation, I found a "seen better days" Turkish towel that could use a bit of a remake.
And remake it I did...
Into two tea towels for my kitchen.
I cut the towel into a large rectangle, approximately 25" by 19" unfinished.
I then used an old trick to perfectly create corners.
I measured 1.5" from the corner of an index card, in both directions, and marked it with my pen.
I then measured 1.5" from the corner to the center and made a mark there as well.
I connected all the marks to make this tiny triangle.
Placing the corners and edges of the towel and triangle together, I folded over the towel to make a triangle on the edge.
I hit it with my hot iron to make a crease.
I removed the triangle template and set it aside to repeat on the other three corners of the fabric.
Using my scissors, I cut off the fabric triangle, making sure to leave a slight edge near the crease.
Now comes the easy part.
I gathered both sides of the towel and folded them over until the creases touched and created this sharp-pointed corner.
Can you see where this is going?
From here, I ironed a 1" fold all the way around the towel, making sure to do the exact same corner fold on each of the remaining three corners.
I didn't want to leave a raw edge, so I tucked under the 1" fold to create a 1/2" fold, ironing that all the way around the edges.
At the corners, the edge simply tucked itself away without adding additional bulk to either side of the toweling.
I used a pin to hold the two sides in place and then took it to my sewing machine.
My Brother sewing machine has some really fun stitches, so I decided to try out #41 using a black thread on the white toweling.
I lined up the folded hem in between the edges of the pressure foot and started sewing.
You can see the great vine pattern that emerged as I let the machine do its work.
At the corners, I simply stopped, lifted the pressure foot, turned my fabric, and proceeded down the next side of the towel.
When it was all done I had a great, decorative tea towel for NO MONEY and just a bit of my time.
This is a perfect project for even the beginner sewer as it just straight sewing and little skill knowledge.
You can make placemats and napkins using the same corner technique.
It was fun to continue to be creative when I can't get out to buy fabric right now.
I especially liked that I was able to repurpose most of the fabric from a towel that was going to end up in the trash otherwise.
It's great being resourceful in times like these!
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