Christmas Dish Towels

This week, I have shown you many different ways to decorate your home for the Holidays. Today, I am going to show you any easy way to add some Christmas flare to your kitchen! Around the holidays, themed hand towels are very popular, but their aren't many options to choose from in the stores, and often I do not like the designs. Making your own decorative hand towels is very easy! This would also make a great gift for a friend this Christmas!

Here's what you'll need :

* A plain hand towel. (I am using a bamboo tea towel, but you can use any type you want.)

* Fabric that goes with whatever look or theme you choose

* Pins

* Sewing Machine

* Iron

* Matching Thread

All I am doing is adding a stripe of fabric across the hand towel, so the first thing you want to do is decide how wide you want your stripe. I wanted my stripe to be 3 inches wide.

Next, measure the width of your towel. Add 1 inch to both of those measurements.

If I want my stripe of fabric to be 3 inches tall and my towel is 18 inches across, I am going to cut my fabric to 4 x 19 inches.

Once you have your fabric cut, you need to iron down a 1/2 inch on each side. One easy way to do this is with no-melt mylar. You can find a sheet of No-Melt Mylar in the quilting section of craft stores. It is basically a sheet of plastic that doesn't melt.

With a ruler and x-acto knife, cut off a strip of the mylar. Make sure that you cut the edge straight.

Place the 'pretty' side of the fabric down and draw a line 1/2 inch from each edge on the back.

Place the edge of the strip of mylar on the line that you drew.

With your iron, fold the fabric over the edge of your mylar strip and iron down.

Iron down both sides of your fabric.

This is just one way to iron down seams. Do what you know and what your comfortable with : )

Now iron down a 1/2 inch seam on both ends of your strip of fabric.

Now your strip of fabric should be the exact length of your towel. Place the strip where you want and pin it to your towel.

Sew all the way around along the edge of the fabric and your finished!

I like having kitchen Christmas decor without it being overly generic!

Tomorrow, we will end our week long marathon of Christmas Crafty Creations with instructions on how to quill one of these beautiful snowflakes so make sure to check in!

*Jes*