Making Kitchen Towels

So many beautiful items of huck and linen towelling yardage have caught my eye on fleaBay, am thinking of nabbing a few to run up some monogrammed kitchen towels as holiday gifts. Is one correct in thinking these sort of towels are nothing more than fabric lengths with narrow hems? If so should be a snap to run up a dozen or so in an afternoon, with the monogramming taking a bit longer. In fact may skip the monogramming all together and let the beauty of the cloth stand alone.

Candide

Reply to
Candide
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Gohn Brothers carries very nice yardage for linen, huck, birdseye, and other manner of toweling. They have lots of basic, hard-to-find fabrics at very reasonable prices. I've dealt with them for more years than I care to reveal. :) But they are not online. Here's the address and some info:

Reply to
Phaedrine

My goal is making hand towels as seen on a husqvarna viking brochure cover a couple years back (when the platinum 770 was new) which used the built-in alphabet to embroider towels with left and right on them, use only one for each hand, that is, one-handed drying?

my real goal is to make a pair for DW's mother in Stockholm with labels of vÃ?nster and höger :-)

klh >>

Reply to
klh in VA

Even the hems are optional. Many a towel is merely raveled out for half an inch at each end. I don't like fringed towels because of the fire hazard, but I gather that the towels you have in mind won't be used as potholders!

I think of mine as cleaning rags -- dry dishes, dry your hands, dry the inside of the microwave oven, wipe starch off the dining table after dampening the pieces of a summer dress -- so the hems tend to be inelegant. Sometimes I'll fold over a quarter inch and zig-zag over the raw edge: much flatter than a twice-folded hem, and more durable than overlocking. If I plan to cut a piece into two towels, I'll draw two or three threads, zig-zag on both sides of the gap, then cut between the rows of zig-zag. (A rotary cutter is good for cutting along a drawn thread.)

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

Well one tends to hope not, but as mother would often say, you cannot control what people do with things you give as gifts.

Do have a vintage Singer pinking machine, so in theory could "pink" the edges and leave things at that, but somehow get these tugs that such treatment does not look "right". After all don't want people talking about me when they see these towels hanging up in a kitchen. *LOL*

Was thinking of a either a twice-folded hem, or simple 1/4" rolled hem, but may give your idea of zig-zaging a try. Thanks for the tips!

Have almost given up putting my nice tea/kitchen towels up, as invaribly

*someone* will wash then dry their mucky hands on them. Now that would't be such a bad thing, if the hands were properly washed, but bet many of your girls know the drill: "washing" entails sticking their grimy mitts under running water, swishing them about abit, then drying those still mucky hands on my nice clean towels. *LOL*

Run my tea/kitchen towels through the ironer, and they come out so smooth, especially the huck and linen.

Reply to
Candide

I use the zig-zag finish only when I'm making towels out of something already half worn out, but a very slight variation of it makes a nice fringe. I've used this fringe on tablecloths -- though not on towels for fear of fire.

Draw a thread at the cutting line, and two or three threads at the stitching line. If cutting a piece into two towels, also draw two or three threads at the other stitching line. Zig-zag with matching thread, stitch length about two millimeters, with the zig falling into the gap and the zag well into the fabric. Then cut along the single drawn thread, and ravel back to the stitching.

Or you can use contrasting thread and any fancy stitch that has one straight edge. If using satin stitch, leave it just a tad open, so that you can see that it's zig-zag. Too short a stitch weakens the fabric, and makes the machine more likely to hang up.

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

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