Flamingo Toes

Colorful Retro Christmas Dishtowels

121 Comments

I am officially declaring this Christmas Kitchen Week. You didn’t know we were going to do that did you? Me either.

But the stars have aligned and by complete accident – (or I’m subconsciously a much better planner than I thought) I have some fun items this week to give your kitchen Christmas style with a retro flair.

Actually, we started (accidentally again) last Friday with the Crush of the Week. Jen from Rook 17 has some fantastic recipes for you to check out for your Christmas baking and gift giving.

Today, to go along with edible yummies – I have a couple visual yummies – in the form of these two super cute dishtowels!!

They are decorated with fun retro fabrics and ruffles and ric rac. I just love them!
I think they would be great for hostess gifts, or to take to a teacher or neighbor with a plate of cookies!

Ready to make a set? Here’s what you’ll need.

  • Waffle weave fabric: 17″ X 28″ for each dishtowel (or you can use a purchased dishtowel)
  • Fabric for ruffles and applique:
    For each ruffle you need a rectangle 4″ x 36″
    Small pieces of each fabric for the ornaments and tree .
    Small pieces of black fabric for the ornament toppers, the tree trunk and the presents.
  • Variety of Ric Rac
  • Patterns – Click Here to Download

Begin by cutting out all your fabric pieces.

For each ruffle, hem the two short sides and one long side. On the other long side, sew a ruffle stitch.

Hem three sides of your dishtowel fabric as well, leaving one short side unhemmed.

Pin the bottom ruffle to the unhemmed side of your dishtowel, right sides together. Sew the ruffle in place and press down.

Pin the second ruffle one inch above the seam of the first ruffle. Right sides should be together and the raw edge should be pointing to the bottom. Sew this ruffle on and press down.

Repeat for the third ruffle.

Let’s do the ornament applique first. :)

Lay out your ornament pieces where you want them. You can use heat-n-bond or something similar to iron them on, or you can just pin them on and sew. Whatever you are more comfortable with.

Sew the ornament pieces on.

Sew strips of ric rac from the top of the dishtowel to each ornament. (You can use ribbon too if you want – though it’s not near as squiggly. :)
Make sure with each piece of ric rac that you very slightly burn the edges so they don’t fray.

 Sew on your ornament toppers next.

Finish off this one with cute ric rac bows at the top of each ornament.

For the Christmas Tree towel, you will do the same thing. After you sew on the ruffles, sew on your applique pieces.

Fray check all your raw edges so the appliques don’t fray when you wash them. If you don’t like the raw edges, there are a couple things you can do. You can sew all the pieces on with a satin stitch ( a very tight zigzag stitch that covers all the raw edges). Or you can add a seam allowance to the pieces and cut out two of everything. Sew the pieces together and turn right side out, then sew them on.

Add in ric rac embellishments and bows on the packages, and a bow at the top of the tree.

Sit back and admire your Christmas Ric Rac Ruffliness.

These appliques would also look great on onesies or t-shirts! Feel free to go crazy with them!  (And send me pictures of course. :)

I’d love to hear what you think!

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Comments

  6. We definitely give out gifts to neighbours and I try to give something handmade – if possible – if only an ice wreath for the reindeer :).
    These dishtowels are wonderful. I love reading your blog, your projects are so inspiring.

    Reply

  12. You have such great ideas. I think I’ll be using this one to make my neighbor gifts for this Christmas. I loved your Feeling Witchy dishtowels as well as your Turkey feet and Santa boot versions. Thanks so much for sharing!

    Reply

  18. These are adorable! I’m absolutely going to make these – though not with white towels LOL!! Probably red, blue and green

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  38. One of my daughters lives in Carlsbad too. I was wondering what I’d ‘do’ for her-you know, a little something with a lot of jazz. That’s it. Thanks !

    Reply

  48. Bev, this is a great tutorial. This is my first year in my new home and I would love to give my neighbors a gift – but I have not figured out what I am going to give them yet – maybe some handmade cards.

    Reply

  55. Oh these are so cute. What a great tutorial you gave on how to make them. Even I could do it, lol.

    Would you be so kind as to share these over at my special party **6 weeks 2 JINGLE**, its all things Christmas, and I want all the COOL projects, on there. I’m trying to find them all, he he. So keep me in mind girl, next time you make something really cool.

    Thanks again,

    Bella :)

    Reply

  63. These are simply divine! I bought some vintage Christmas fabric scraps at a sale not too long ago and I think these are the perfect project for them. Thanks!!

    Reply

  68. Just gorgeous! The fabrics against the crisp white are perfect. I am totally doing this for some back up gifts this year, beautifully done. I think I’ll make the applique allowance a bit larger and let the edges fray, wish me luck!

    Reply

  70. I make dish towels too. And I love ruffles and ric rac. I made my first one using both not to long ago but yours are perfection! Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  72. Hi
    Just wanted to let you know that I “ Featured” you on Santa’s Gift Shoppe Blog Hop today for your great project & inspiration! Be sure to grab the “I was featured” on Santa’s Gift Shoppe Button/Code for your sidebar! You deserve it! Thanks so much..If you’re not a follower already we’d love for you to join us…
    Barb

    Reply

  76. That is SO cute! I just bought and washed some of that circle fabric:) And I just tried applique for the first time too, I definitely need the help of the heat and bond:) I’ve never done ruffles before but now I really want to try. Those towels are so freakin’ cool:)

    Reply

  79. These are absolutely adorable. I did not get the sewing gene in my family…how do you do a ruffle stitch? I have a garage sale sewing machine that only does a straight stitch. Thanks for the help!

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  84. These are SO cute, and would make a great gift for neighbors and teachers to go along with a tray full of cookies. I’d also love to have one! It’s projects like this that make me wish I had a sewing machine, though I know I COULD do it by hand.

    Reply

  87. Your towels are so festive! I love them. I have done bonded appliques and then zjgzag stitched them for permanancy, but i am curious about ‘heat and bond’. Is that the same as the iron on bonding fabrics that we purchase by the yard?
    Don’t know if you responded to the question about how to ruffle posed by one of your respondents, but the method I use is to baste two rows of running stitches, then pull one end on each to gather fabric, then pin in place and machine stitch
    Thanks so much for sharing your techniques and imagination!
    Warm regards,
    Susan

    Reply

  89. I’ve looked all over for plain white weave dish towel that are close to your measurements and I can’t find any for a decent price (like to buy a set of 4 for less than $20)! Where is everyone buying theirs?

    Reply

  90. these are so great. could be used as Teacher’s Day present, birthday, anniversary, or even christmas gift to brightens the kitchen.

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  91. amei o seu trabalho ,com certeza vou faze-los,mas com os motivos de festa juninaque é agora no mes de junho…….

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  92. I just found you on the All Free Sewing website and I just love your towels. I’m going to start now and make some for Christmas. I’m always bogged down then, so this has inspired me to start early.

    Thanks so much for sharing!

    Debbie

    Reply

  93. Another way to do a finished edge to smaller pieces you are going to applique is to use a “used” dryer sheet. Right side of fabric to dryer sheet. After completely sewing around entire piece, cut a big “X” in dryer sheet so you can get your sissors inside, and trim dryer sheet to about 1/4 inch entirely around the piece to be appliqued. You can then turn the dryer sheet under and iron the edges of the applique. It will give you a finished edge without adding bulk to the applique

    Reply

    • You can also do this with fusible interfacing and have the fusible where after turning, it will have the rough side out and fuse it to whatever you are appliqueing. Then it will hold it in place while you stitch it on.

  98. What an absolutely darling set of dishtowels! I just found your tute under All F.ree Sewing. I have bookmarked your site and will be making some of these for friends and family. Thank you!

    Reply

  99. Ikea has some hand towels for 49 cents. They are not the weave like this but more towel. They make
    really cute decorated towels . Very cute for kitchen towels, wedding gifts , and different holidays.

    Reply

  102. I love these dish towels! They are adorable! A perfect hostess gift to make for Christmas time. Quick question — How do you make the ruffle binding look so finished? When I make a ruffle, both long ends are undone and tattered looking.

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  103. Where do you find the waffle weave fabric? I shope at Jo anne’s and it’s not avaulable, I also asked abou flour sackand they ddon’t carry it either. Thank you. Also I love these. ♥

    Reply

  104. Too Cute!! Plan to give as hostess gift for our annual Sunday School Christmas party. I’ve been looking & looking for something to make and these are Purrrr-fect. Thx much

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  106. Very cute will make nice gifts. I also like your scripture at the end of your page…thanks for sharing your ideas.

    Reply

  107. Thank you for this very cute and ingenious pattern. I needed something different to make friends for Christmas and this is perfect.

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  109. Your idea for Christmas is neat going take this to my class. Question do u have ideas for other holiday. Like this one.

    Reply

  111. Here’s another possibility for making the appliques for those of us who don’t want unfinished edges– cut one piece of decorative fabric & another of interfacing. Place the fabric right sides together (the face of the printed fabric will be facing the interfacing, not facing out). Stitch together at the edges all the way around. From the interfacing side carefully cut a slit in the interfacing and use that to turn the applique inside out. Now the finished face of the printed fabric is facing out. Press something like a chop stick inside to open the seam out to the edge. Press flat with an iron. Now sew around the edge to attach to the towel with the printed side out. So easy. Used this to make appliques for my daughter’s clothes when she was little…many years ago when appliques weren’t retro. ;-)

    Reply

  115. These are adorable…now who do I love enough to devote this much work to???? Just kidding! I think they’d also be cute for Halloween with pumpkins/ghost/witches’ hat, for Easter with eggs, etc. I just liked them plain with the tiers of ruffles!

    Reply

  116. These will be the ideal Christmas gifts and could make some dish cloths to match to go with them . Thank You!!!!

    Reply

  118. Bev, I like your towel idea, & I’d like to try that. Better than dull, same-old! I do want to let you know that the trim you used is “rickrack”, not “ric rac”. if you want to test my statement, by all means please do. You can either look up the word (yes, it’s in the dictionary) or go to that section of the store and read the label on a pack of rickrack. Thanks for your great craft ideas!

    Reply

  119. How do you get the cutouts from unraveling. They look like they are just straight cut then sewn on the towel. The same with the ruffles. I would think all of them would fray.

    Reply

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