Flamingo Toes

Shabby Hearts and Ruffles Dish Towel

52 Comments

I don’t do a ton of decorating for Valentine’s Day – but I do like to have a few things here and there for a little fun.

My kitchen has been looking a little lonely now that the Christmas decorations are gone so I decided to make a fun little dish towel to brighten the room up!

Here it is!

It has some sweet ruffled circles on the bottom and shabby stitched hearts for decoration.

Cute huh? It’s pretty quick and easy too!

Here’s what you’ll need to make your own:

1 Dish towel (bought this one at Target)
(This towel is 16″ x 27″. If yours is a different size, you’ll need to adjust amounts and measurements)
4 different fabrics (you’ll need 10 – 3″ circles from each plus fabric for hearts)
Rick Rack (of course. Cause we don’t make dish towels around here without rick rack)
Ribbon

Start by cutting your circles for your ruffles. I used my Accuquilt – it was super fast with their Circle Die –
But you could definitely cut them by hand too. You’ll need 10 – 3″ circles of 2 of the colors, 9 – 3″ circles of the other two colors.

Decide what is going to be the first row. Fold your circles for this row into quarters. Pin ten circles evenly across the bottom of the dish towel.
This is kind of the same method the awesome Simple Simon & Co. girls use for their crazy cute Bustle Skirt.

Sew the little circles down close to the top. Since I was using white thread that blended with the towel, I sewed a straight line across the top of all the circle points, about 1/4″ below the point.

Start the next row of circles (this row will have 9), laying these between the circles below. Overlap them just a bit.

Continue layering your circles until you have four rows sewn on.

Cut a length of small rick rack approx. 20″ long.
Tie a small bow on each end, so that a small 2 1/2″ tail of rick rack is on each side. Burn the ends slightly so they won’t fray.

Center the rick rack on the dish towel, so the bows are about 9″ up from the bottom edge and 4″ in from each side. This should make a little curve in the rick rack between the bows.
Sew the rick rack onto the dish towel.

Cut out 4 hearts – 3 of one fabric and one of a contrasting fabric. Lay the hearts so the tops just overlap the rick rack curve.

Sew down the hearts – you can use a single stitch, a satin stitch – or for a sketchy-er look – sew around them three times with the stitching lines not in exactly the same place.

I used a dark gray thread so the stitching would outline the hearts a bit.

To finish off the dish towel add a row (or two) of ribbon along the top row of the ruffles. Sew down the ribbon so it overlaps the circles and covers the top row of stitching.
Burn the ends of the ribbon to prevent fraying and wrap the ribbon around the edges of the dish towel.

Add a contrasting ribbon on top for a little more color.

And that’s it!!

A fun, cute way to dress up a store-bought dish towel!

It would make a cute Teacher or Neighbor Valentine’s gift, along with some treats!

I’d love to hear what you think!

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Comments

  11. Emily says

    I’m not a super big fan of decorating for Valentine’s day either, but these are super cute! They would make really cute gifts for the girls around my neighborhood!

    Reply

  18. Andi S says

    This makes me want an Accuquilt even more! I hate cutting circles like that and flowers and things by hand because I can never get them to look exactly like I want them. Yours is just beautiful! I want one for my own kitchen!

    Reply

  25. VickiT says

    Ooh I LOVE this a lot. Just one more reason I NEED that circle die. Well, that die and red fabrics. LOL Red fabrics are the one thing my stash does not have unless it’s for Christmas.

    Reply

  28. Jaan says

    YAH! Love this idea, we will be moving to a new home in June. We plan to ditch all our old stuff, and decorate with all new, modern look. I hope to do my kitchen in RED!, yes, love reds, and have tons of scraps to do this design. So different from embroidering tea towels. THANKS!

    Reply

  30. Kim says

    I absolutely love this! The ruffles, the banner-everything! Thanks for the tutorial! I don’t decorate much for V-day either, but I may have to make me one of these. I featured this on Sugar Bee Crafts today (reader features)!

    Reply

  31. JaneEllen Jones says

    Oooooh so darned cute. You could make the towels for any holiday. How cute.
    What a great idea for gifts also. Pretty inexpensive and easy/quick to make. That’s the kind of projects I love. Thanks for sharing. You’re a keeper and so is your project.

    Reply

  32. Amy says

    I am not much of a holiday specific decorator, but this tea towel is super cute.
    If I ever master basic sewing skills maybe I will make a few generic towels or
    maybe day of the week towels.

    Reply

  43. susan jensen says

    Everything is so sweet, nice &easy. Valentines, Easter, Mother Day. Lots to show off for. Thank for sharing. Susan J

    Reply

    • Beverly says

      They do fray a little, but not too crazy. Just enough to give it a little bit of a shabby chic look. :)

      Thanks – I’m so glad you like it!

  47. Janet says

    Great idea! Love the circles as ruffles. I’m going to make a matching valance for the kitchen window with that ruffled bottom. Might use a pinked circle to prevent fraying unless the fabric dictates that frayed look. So many ideas hatched from yours!

    Reply

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