Lets Get Acquainted Blog Hop - Tabbed Tea Towel tutorial

I have quite a few plain tea towels at home, and wanted to make them more pretty and practical by using patterned fabric to spruce them up a bit. You may have seen tea towels done this way before with a crocheted top, so that they be attached to kitchen cupboard handles.

Supplies:
One plain cotton tea towel (one tea towel will make 2 tabbed tea towels) - I have based this tutorial on a tea towel measuring 18x 28" before washing.
One button
Two small pieces of fabric - at least 8x8"
Template for patterned fabric top piece
Basic sewing equipment - rotary cutters, mat, fabric scissors, measuring tape, pins

1. Wash tea towels first (as they may shrink if made from 100% cotton) and iron. 

2. Fold tea towel in half lengthways (along the longer side - about 28") and cut in half. You should now have 2 pieces approximately 14x 18 "

3. Taking one of the two pieces that have just been cut, fold in the raw edge and press, then fold in again - press and pin.

4. Stitch this edge with matching thread to your tea towel.

5. Mark the centre of the shorter side (about 12" wide) with a pin.  

6. Then place a pin about 1/4 and 3/4 of the way along the top, so it is divided into about 4 even sections. My tea towel was a bit over 12" wide so I placed pins at 3,6 and 9 " .

7. Fold in from an outside pin to the middle pin creating a pleat, and pin in place.

8. Repeat for the other side - the width across the top of the tea towel should now be about 6". If you have a wider tea towel, you may need to adjust the width accordingly by making extra or wider pleats.

9. Sew along the top edge to hold the pleats in place. Remove pins and place the tea towel aside for now.



10.  Using the template, cut out the pattern for the patterned fabric piece, and pin to fabric. Cut out and repeat so that you have 2 identical pieces of fabric for the top.

11. Mark each piece about 1/2 and inch up from the bottom flat edge. Then with right sides together, pin together. Starting from the 2 marks 1/2 inch from the bottom edge (where blue pins are on my fabric), stitch together with a 1/4" seam. 

11. Turn up the bottom edge (about 1/2" wide) then pin and press. Repeat for other side.


12. Clip the curves and turn right side out. Push out the corners and press, keeping the bottom edges that were pressed in the last step folded up inside.


13. Mark where the button hole will be sewn - about  the middle of the tab part of the top piece. (Rather than doing a buttonhole and a button, you could also use a bit of velcro for the closure if you wished )

14. Sew the button hole and using thread snips, cut it open. 

15. Gathering the tea towel and the top fabric together, place the top piece over the top edge of the tea towel where the pleat is, so that it is encased in the patterned fabric. Pin together, checking that the tea towel is also encased on the other side.

16. Stitch along the edge of the patterned fabric - I used a walking foot for this as the tea towel was a bit bulky where the pleats were.


17. Fold the top piece down so that you can use the buttonhole to mark where the button will be sewn. 


18. Stitch a button on so you can hang your tabbed tea towel off a handle in your kitchen. You could also do this with hand towels in the bathroom so that they don't fall on the floor.


Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. 
Kirsten.