This post was originally published on DIY Network’s blog Made + Remade in September 2012.
Three cheers for an easy, home-bettering DIY project! I decided to whip up a set of custom hand towels for my bathroom this week–there’s just something about fresh hand towels.
If you’re not in the market for bathroom accessories, keep in mind that the materials I used would work really well in the kitchen or the dining room table arrangement too. I’d even consider making some customized to friend’s home decor and delivering them as a housewarming or holiday gift, because let’s be honest, who doesn’t like a nice pom-pom? For <$15 you can make a set too.
The inspiration for this project started when I discovered a four-pack of multi-purpose flour sacks (a.k.a. soft tea towels) at our local store. Each rag in the pack was sized generously to 18″x36″ and priced at just $10, it felt like a good bargain albeit an impulse purchase. I only needed two for the scale of my project, so I have two leftover for another day too.
Right from the get-go, I thought they’d make for great hand towels for our recently updated bathroom, and what better way to go than to customize inexpensive hand towels to suit? Bring on the poms, a colorful and dare I say feminine-flirtatious accent to something otherwise plain and unassuming. Pete’s going to love these.
I actually really liked some online sources for pom-pom trim (Purl Soho had a wider color selection than a local retailer, for example) but yellow seemed suiting in the end, and it was available locally (and I had a coupon) so I seized the opportunity to buy plenty for my project. The possibilities for trim are endless, this just happened to be the right kind of style for me.
Quite simply, I cut pieces of the strand to length, deciding to do each of the shorter towel lengths only, and affixed them into place on the edges of the towel using straight pins.
With my sewing machine armed with white thread, I stitched two straight lines along the edge to finish the towels.
The finished pieces are simple and cheery. They look so great in the bathroom, adding a fun touch to our space for only $15.
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