For each set of Themed Room projects we do here at Sew4Home, we like come up with at least one fun thing to do with all your leftover fabric scraps. For our Citrus Holiday Dining Room, it's these cute tea towels trimmed with a simple eight-square patchworked row and highlighted with bright red jumbo ric rac. They'll be fightin' over who gets to dry the dishes!

If you're new to cutting perfect squares and patchworking, take a look at our tutorial: Quilting Basics Part 1: Tools, Cutting & Piecing.

Our Citrus Holiday projects were made using Heather Bailey's delightful Pop Garden & Bijoux Collection. To learn more about how we created this non-traditional holiday palette, read our article: Citrus Holiday: Christmas Dining Room.

Sewing Tools You Need

• Any Sewing Machine (we recommend the Janome Sewist 500)

Fabric and Other Supplies

For a set of two towels:

• 2 solid color, store-bought dish towels: we used a basic white dish towel from Crate and Barrel that measured 20" across the bottom edge
• Fabric scraps for patchwork border: for our size towel, we decided on EIGHT 3½" x 3½" CUT squares (2½" x 2½" finished squares). Eight 2½" squares was a perfect fit for the 20" edge of our towel. You can use more or fewer squares to best accommodate your dish towel width: we used a variety of Heather Bailey's Pop Garden & Bijoux scrap fabrics
• 2½ yards of jumbo ric rac for top and bottom of each patchwork border: we used a deep wine red
  NOTE: You may need or or less yardage to accommodate your dish towel width; remember to multiply width by two to have enough for a top AND bottom border
• All purpose thread
• See-through ruler
• Fabric pencil
• Iron and ironing board
• Scissors or rotary cutter and mat
• Straight pins

Getting Started

1. Prior to cutting, mix and match your fabric scraps on a large flat surface until you have two sets of eight squares that look good in a row.
2. Cut your selected scraps into sixteen 3½" x 3½" squares.
   
3. Cut four 21" strips of ric rac.

At Your Sewing Machine

1. Collect the set of eight squares you want for your first towel border. Pin the first two squares, right sides together, along one side.
2. Sew together, using a ½" seam. Iron seam flat.
3. Take the third square in your sequence, and pin it, right sides together, to the completed two-square piece.
4. Sew together, using a ½" seam. Iron seam flat.
5. Continue in this manner until you have a complete eight-square row. It will be 21" long x 3 ½" wide.
   
6. Repeat steps 1-5 for your second towel border.
7. Take one ric rac strip and pin it along the bottom edge of one towel. Center the ric rac right along the edge, so the "waves" extend equally above and below the bottom of the towel. Turn the edges of the ric rac up and in. These edges will eventually be covered by your patchwork trim. Pin in place.
   
8. Stitch ric rac in place.
   
9. Repeat steps 7-8 for the second towel.
10. Take a completed eight-square row and press under one long side and both short sides ½". Be careful to keep your edges and corners nice and sharp. Your row now measures 20" x 3".
11. Repeat for the other eight-square row.
12. With the fabrics' right sides facing down, line up the raw edge of your eight square row with the top edge of the ric rac. Pin. Make sure your side edges remain pressed in.
    
13. Move to your sewing machine and flip over. Stitch in place, following right along the seam line that secured your ric rac to the towel (step 8 above).
    NOTE: Your pins are underneath your project now, but you can still carefully reach in and pull them out as you go. It's never a good idea to stitch over your pins if you can possibly avoid it.
    
14. Repeat steps 12-13 for your second patchwork row and towel.
15. Flip up your patchwork row and firmly press in place. Your side and top edges should still be neatly and accurately folded in by ½".
    
16. Insert your top ric rac piece, centering it so half pokes up evenly all along the patchwork's folded edge and the other half disappears underneath. Pin in place, tucking the ends of the ric rac down behind the patchwork.
    
17. Top stitch around all four sides approximately ¼" from the patchwork's folded edge. This stitching secures the sides and top. The bottom is already secure, but you want to go all the way around so you'll have a complete line of top stitching around the entire patchwork piece.
18. Repeat steps 15-17 for your second towel.
19. Now ... go dry some dishes!
    

Other machines suitable for this project include the White Fashionaire Model 3260 or the Pfaff Expression 3.0.

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