Sew a Kitchen Towel Dress

Hello again!

Two posts in one week…watch out! I’m on fire!! Lol. I have a lot of catching up to do, so I guess I shouldn’t get too excited yet!

I recently held a Mother’s Day workshop class for my students. I promised them I’d put this tutorial up and even though I’m super late on getting it up, it’s here. Better late than never, right? When some of my students asked me about putting together a Mother’s Day sewing workshop class, I thought “what a great idea!” followed immediately by “why didn’t I think of that?” (Ha ha). I took a couple of weeks off in-between classes (because of the gala I put on at the end of April) so I hadn’t seen the girls in-between our last class and when I came up with this project, so they had no idea what project I had selected. Because the moms are usually the ones signing their kids up for my classes, I had to be really secretive about what we were doing.

So basically, nobody had any idea what project they were signing up for, only that it was going to be a special gift for mom. Because of that, I really wasn’t sure if it was going to be a flop or a success. In fact, one student later confessed to me, “My mom asked me ‘are you sure you want to sign up for the class when you don’t know what you’ll be making?’ but I told her ‘Mom, don’t worry, my teacher always has good projects for us!”

Have I told you how much I love my job? I mean, how cute is that?? I love that my students trust me enough to sign up for a class even when they don’t know what we’re doing. Thank you for trusting me ladies!! I not only had a full workshop class (actually, I had 2 workshop classes), but it ended up being my favorite class I’ve held. The girls were so enthusiastic about it and it was so much fun seeing all the different towel/fabric combos they came up with. It was really a ton of fun! And they all turned out SO stinking adorable.

In fact, they were so cute that I decided to make a set of them for my cousin for her wedding gift. I made one for each of the major holidays/seasons. They were a huge hit! I want to make a set for myself! (especially the 4th of July towel; that’s my fave!)

Let’s move on and get this tutorial started!!

To sew your kitchen towel dress, you will need:

• 1 kitchen towel
• Grosgrain ribbon (about 50″), I recommend 3/4″ wide but any size can work
• Fat quarter (or approx. 1/4 yard cotton fabric)
• Bodice pattern (click here)

First, fold your towel in half lengthwise and mark the center. I marked both sides (on the fold). Then, open your towel up, draw a line across (connecting the dots) and cut it in half.

Next, cut out your bodice pieces. You will need a total of 4: a front and back, as well as a front and back for the lining pieces.

Time for sewing!

Pin together 2 of your bodice pieces, right sides together. Starting at the bottom side, sew around the entire bodice except for the bottom (straight) edge. You are going to repeat this with your other 2 bodice pieces.

Clip your curved edges and cut diagonally on your cornered edges. This will help it lay more flat when you turn it.

With your seam gauge ruler, turn up your bottom edges 1/2″ around the bodice (on both bodice pieces). Press.

Flip your bodice pieces to be right side out and give them each a good press.

Set your bodice pieces aside and grab your 2 towel pieces. On the raw (cut) edge of the towel, you are going to make pleats to make the towel width fit the bodice width. To make pleats, first start by marking the middle. On each side, about 1/3 of the way from the center, pinch the fabric and fold it over, pinning it in the middle. You will probably have about an inch to an inch and a half of folded towel that you are pinning at the center (on both sides of the center). Does that make sense? Make sure that all of your raw edges along the top are even. Pin your pleats in place.

(I missed the picture of the pinching and moving over part on the first pleat, but if you scroll down I got pictures of that on the second set of pleats).

Make one more pleat on both sides of the towel, repeating the same thing you did with the first pleat. You may have to adjust the size of your pleat in order to make the width line up the same as the bodice. Measure the bottom edge of the bodice and the top (pleated) edge of the towel to make sure they are the same size.

Make sure you have plenty of pins to hold your pleats in place. Baste across the top edge of your pleats. You can follow your 3/8″ allowance for this.

Now, put one towel skirt piece (top, pleated edge) inside one bodice piece (bottom, folded edge). Place it so that the top edge of the towel is 1/2″ inside the bodice, which means it’ll line up with the raw edge of the fold inside. Pin in place and then stitch across the top, close to the bottom folded edge of the bodice.

Cut 2 pieces of ribbons approximately 25″ long. Fold each piece in half and mark the center.

Now, place the center of the ribbon on the center of the bodice, along the bodice and skirt seamline (you’ll do this on each of your 2 pieces). You’ll want to place it so that the middle of the ribbon runs across the seamline, so that you don’t see the seamline.

Stitch across the top of the ribbon, keeping your stitch close the edge of the ribbon. Repeat on the bottom of the ribbon.

Take both of your dress pieces, face them right sides together and pin at the shoulder seam. Sew across the shoulder seam, using a 1/2″ seam allowance. Turn it right side out when you’re finished.

This is kind of the fun part (although it’s all been fun, right?) where you can add embellishments on your little dress! You can sew on buttons, ruffles on the skirt, or rick-rack or lace around the neck edge. Be creative and have fun with it. Or, if you prefer to keep it plain, that’s fine too!

At this point, you are done with your dress towel!! You can hang them on your stove, or wherever else makes sense, by sliding them over the handle and then tying up the sides.

Here are a couple pictures of the kitchen towel dresses my students made; they all did a FANTASTIC job making them! Aren’t they soooo cute????

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