Pin Tuck Dish Towels

Hi!  Welcome to Fabulous Friday!  I haven't posted in a while....life has been C.R.A.Z.Y!  We have been so busy with softball and family activities that I completely neglected you.  I am back in action now.  While I was away, we had an opportunity to do some cleaning up and clearing out.  That means I got to bring my sewing things back down from the attic.  That makes me happy happy happy.  The first order of business was to start piecing a quilt my mom and I are working on (HUGE project).  Then, I made a dress I had cut the pieces for quite some time ago (see pic at bottom of post).  As I was thinking of what to make next, and cleaning the house of course, I ran across the list I made of things I would like to make for Laney's hope chest this year.  On the list was a set of pin tuck dish towels.  YES!  I even had already purchased the necessary flour sack towels.  This was such a fun project.  Let's get started on yours.

Here's what you need:

Flour sack dish towels (pack of 5 for around $5 at Wal Mart)
White Thread
Sewing Machine
Iron
Scissors

Alright, do you have all of your supplies?  Then let's get started!

The absolute first thing you want to do is to wash and dry the towels.  This is to make sure they are done shrinking.  Unfortunately, it makes them come out looking like this....

Don't worry!  Most of that will iron right out.  Go ahead and iron out as much of the wrinkles as you can.  You want to set the iron so that it steams.  The trickiest part about this step is getting the edge you will be working with as straight as possible.  The flour sack cloth is very pliable, so the edges stretch easily.  At any rate, you should come out with an edge looking like this.

Once you have your straight edge, it is time to begin ironing the crease that will become your first pintuck.  Go ahead and fold the edge of the fabric under.  I use old country measurements, so I measured halfway down the fattest part of my finger.....but for scientific purposes, let's say 2 1/4 inches.

Press this crease so that it stays when you move the cloth to the sewing machine.  You can pin it if you feel more comfortable that way.  I hate pinning fabric.  Move your cloth to the sewing machine, and run a stitch the full length of the crease we just made.  I wanted a fairly wide pin tuck, so I aligned it to my 3/8 seam allowance marker.  If you want thinner pin tucks, feel free to adjust this to 1/4 or whatever you like.

Once you have done that, you will move back to the ironing board.  Open the folded cloth up, and iron the pin tuck down toward the edge we ironed straight earlier.

Now fold the cloth as we did before to make another pin tuck.  This time you will want to use a smaller measurement.  In country measure, I used the second joint of my finger. If you are actually measuring, we will call it 1 1/2". Crease, sew, iron, and repeat until desire number of tucks have been made.

I chose to make three pin tucks.  I just liked the look of that and stopped.  You should feel absolutely at liberty to make as few or as many pin tucks as you like.

Once you have finished making the pin tucks, you will need to secure them in their downward facing positions. To do this, you will run a stitch beginning at the top of the top pin tuck and extending to the bottom of the bottom pin tuck.

Trim your loose thread ends and give your towel a last press with the iron.  Tada! You did it!

Since I was making this for Laney's hope chest, I actually went ahead and tied a stack of three of these up with some yarn to keep them together and give them a little touch of love.

I am very excited about how these turned out.  I think these would be amazing to add a monogram and give as a wedding gift as well.  I plan to make another set for sweet little Leah soon.

As promised, here is the picture of the little dear wearing the dress I made her earlier in the week.

We were waiting for Laney's softball game to start. 

Well, that's it for now guys and gals!  I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did.  If you try it out yourself, you'll have to let me know!

Woodburned Wooden Spoons

My oldest daughter, Laney, turned 8 recently.  Eight seems pretty harmless, but it is actually a very scary birthday.  Almost to ten, halfway to driving, only ten years from leaving!  I decided that eight is the perfect age for me to start adding items to Laney's hope chest.  A hope chest is sort of a forgotten tradition these days, but I have an old-fashioned side.  Traditionally a hope chest is used to gather and store household items such as table linens, bed linens, dishes, etc in preparation for a young girl to get married or move out on her own.  Commonly these chests are constructed of cedar wood in order to prevent moths, but other materials have also been known to be used.  While Laney's hope chest is currently a theoretical one, eventually she will have an actual chest to fill.

I started by searching all over the web for ideas of things to include in her chest.  I now have a list of items to make or have Laney make to include.  These wooden spoons are what I chose to make first because they are inexpensive and easy to make.  My goal is to post about each item I make so that you can see her hope chest collection grow over time. 

Honestly, these would be great for so many purposes.  They would be good to include in a wedding gift or give as a favor for a bridal shower.  You could also just make some for yourself to add a little homespun touch to your kitchen.  You have the idea...so now for the project.

Here's what you need:
set of  wooden spoons
woodburning kit

Walmart has sets of four wooden spoons for 88 cents, so I actually ended up buying two packs and making a set for little Leah to get a jump start on her chest as well.  They also have woodburning kits for under $10, but I already had mine from my years of craft hopping.

Ready to craft?!?  Here we go....

Because the wooden spoons are made of soft wood, they tend to be a little rough when you open them.  You could spend more money and get nice, hardwood spoons....but I chose to just sand these down a bit around the rough spots.  Plus, because of how inexpensive these are, you can afford to practice, mess up, and have fun without worrying about messing up an expensive spoon.  Your choice though.  If you choose to sand, just make sure you clear the area of any dust before we get to the burning part.

Now that you have a smooth surface, you are ready to burn.  Choose and attach your wood burning tip.  I chose a cone shaped tip.  Let your wood burner heat up.  Make sure that your wood burner is securely in its stand.  You don't want to have it burning up the whole world while it heats.  For extra security, you could work over a piece of glass to prevent damage to your work surface.

Once your burning tool is heated, you can draw your chosen design onto the surface of the back of a spoon.  I chose to freehand a flower with some leaves and textural dots.  You can choose to add any design you wish.  Remember not to hold your burning tool in one place for too long.  You will end up with strange dots and spots that are more burned than others.  Most importantly...as I always say...perfection ruins a good project...so craft with confidence and don't worry about things being perfect....mine sure aren't.

Once you have finished the back design on the spoon, you can add additional designs to the front if desired.  Jazz it up a little....add a monogram like I did on the large, flat spoons...or just do something that makes you happy!

Once I finished all of the spoons, I tied them with a blue ribbon to keep them together.

Here are my results!  I hope you are as happy with yours as I am with mine.

Let me know if you have any ideas of things to add to a hope chest or if you have tried this project yourself.  I love to hear from you!