Ruffled Hand Towel Tutorial

Here is an easy way to add a little loveliness your bathroom.

The plain old hand towel in my bathroom was just that.  PLAIN.  I decided it needed a little makeover.

I started with a simple white towel and added three rows of ruffles using a white 100% cotton fabric.

You can buy premade ruffles, but they are also easy (and cheap!) to make yourself.

I cut 2″ wide strips across the entire width of the fabric.  A good rule of thumb for how much fabric you need is 2 1/2 times the width of the towel. I wanted my ruffles to be fairly petite, so 2″ of fabric made ruffles about 1″ wide.

Cut three.  Or however many ruffles you want.

I pressed seams on the edges by folding along the bottom and pressing, then turning one more time and pressing again.  Repeat on the top edge.

I moved my needle position as far over as I could and stitched the hems in place.

Using a long running stitch, stitch down the right of the center of the ruffle.  Then to the left of the center.  That way you have two long running stitches down the center.  When gathering, two is always better than one.

Grab hold of the two bottom threads and gently pull to gather the entire length of the ruffle.

Pin across your towel so that the ruffles are gathered evenly and stitch down the middle of the ruffle.  I turned the ends under once.

And it’s done. That was easy. It’s the perfect look for my little blue bath.

11 Comments

  1. I have been planning on doing some projects with ruffles, but I never thought about simply adding them to a bath towel. Very cute idea! I just discovered your blog, and I see a lot of neat ideas here!

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