April 22, 2011

(Un)Crafty - No-Sew Embellished Dishcloths

A while back, I made this dish mat with the help of my crafty mom and sister.  I do not sew (have I mentioned that??...only about a million times!).  The fabric was so cute that I wanted to think of something to use the scraps.  We had noticed how raggety our dishtowels were around this house so I decided to try to embellish plain new dishtowels with the fabric...and without sewing.

You will need:
1. plain white flour sack dishcloths (I bought mine at Target for $3.99/set of 4)
2. Sheets of Stich Witchery (available at JoAnn's)
3. Damp towel
4. Iron/ironing board
Scissors

The first step was to wash my new dishcloths and dry.  Any shrinkage will happen before you embellish.  Then I decided on a few simple shapes to cut out of my fabric.  I am a little obsessed with these simple birds, so I drew them and traced them onto my fabric.  Then I cut them out.  I also did geometic shapes like circles (see below), squares, and stripes.  In the end, my favorites are the birds and the circles.  The shapes with straight edges seem to fray the most.

Once your shapes are cut out of fabric, trace and cut out the same size from your sheet of Stitch Witchery.  The Stitch Witchery will bond your fabric shape to your dishtowel.

Then use your iron and a damp towel to fuse the fabric to the dishtowel.  Just follow the simple directions on your Stitch Witchery package.  Its something like this: fuse your fabric to the dishtowel by placing in desired location, covering with a damp towel and heating with your iron for 10 seconds.  Repeat on reverse side until bonding is complete!  Its really so easy!

This will be your final, finished product!  I have found that after many washes, they are still holding up well!  In fact, they seem to get softer and more pliable with each wash.  I plan to make many more!  I think these would make a great hostess gift or housewarming present.  The total time to make all four of the towels was about 1 hour - its a great start-and-complete project for naptime!

Happy (Un)Crafting!



4 comments:

molliehogan said...

i am definitely going to do this soon!!

erickson family said...

oh my goodness. these are precious.

Trisha @ The Sweet Survival said...

Love the fabric you chose! So simple and cute.

Sharon-The OKI StampQueen said...

Wonderful, EASY idea! We have a pew from our old chapel we use as a bench at our kitchen table-complete with the hymnal rack that holds cookbooks and I drape some vintage handtowels and aprons from it as well. Can't wait to "update" the look!