Valentine’s Craft – Dish Towel Tutorial {Dollar Tree Style!}

I’ll tell you a little secret (and I don’t care if you tell, either!).  I LOVE kitchen towels.  I hope that doesn’t make me a shallow person, but sometimes it’s the little things in life that bring us joy, no?  Fresh brewed coffee… a clean dish towel?  It’s so hard for me to pass by the rows of brand spanking new and cute (not to mention clean) dish towels whenever I am at Target or wherever.  Williams~Sonoma?  Oh please don’t let me loose in there.  And maybe it’s just because we are in the kitchen so much that the dish towels always seem to be perpetually dirty…  maybe that is what makes me love new, clean towels all the more.  Let’s go with that.

In addition to our every day variety, I also have dish towels for each holiday as well.  I know.  Precious, right??  Except, as I realized in (mock) horror recently, I have no “Valentine’s Day” themed dishtowels.  What?? What kind of “dish towel maven” am I?  I had to set that straight right away.

Now, the one thing about buying cute “holiday themed” dish towels is that you feel inclined to use them for display only.  It’s like the fancy guest hand towels in the bathroom.  Raise your hand if you have a set of those that only see the light of day when guests come.  Ok, you in front of the computer screen – you have some too?  You must also have children.  Or a messy husband.  Or maybe just a tall dog.  All I know is that, over here in these parts (at the “ALC Ranch”), we are a bit more “function over form” when it comes to kitchen towels.  My boys can (and do) wipe their hands on any towel-like surface that is readily available so I don’t get bent out of shape over dishtowels being used.  Hey, it’s cheaper and more environmentally friendly than them using paper towels every five minutes every time they want to dry their hands.  Even if you DID spend $5.99 on that fancy decorative towel!

So when I found a couple of dish towels at the Dollar Tree with dark pink patterned lines, I got pretty excited (some Dollar Tree security camera MAY just have a recording of me giving a little hoppity-skip-hop – I’m just sayin’).  And talk about a cheap ‘n easy Valentine Craft!  My favorite!  I snagged two of these  and now I wish I had gotten more.  Will have to go back ASAP (and hope they don’t recognize the “weird lady” from the surveillance tape).

These might look red depending on your screen but they are dark pink.  I had some some Valentine’s fabric I purchased for another project so I just used a little of that.  And only about 10 inches at most.

If you have any leftover red fabric from Christmas (or maybe just something in your “giveaway” pile?) you could maybe find something pink or red that will work to cut out some hearts!

I cut two of the patterned squares using my shears to help prevent fraying.  A little extra cuteness with that zig-zag, too!  Then I centered a square on each dish towel and pinned them.   Looks like some sort of voodoo Valentine’s ritual here but please just take a moment and celebrate the fact that I used all matching “pink” pins, K?  And it helps that these dish towels come folded in thirds and have “built-in” grid lines.  Bonus!

You don’t need a sewing machine for this.  What took me 10 minutes on my machine for two towels may take you an hour by hand (depending on how fast you hand stitch) but this absolutely can be done by hand.  I used a zig zag stitch to sew on the fabric patches. White thread on one, red on the other.

That is all.  No, really.  Instant, kitchen towel cuteness. For just over a buck each.

And talk about easy Teacher gifts, etc??

So, come on kids, feel free to use these “fancy” towels!!!  (I’ll only take a buck off of your allowance if they get ruined!).  ;)

And who knows?  Maybe my boys will instinctively shy away from using these towels because they are pink and have “hearts and junk” on them.  A Mother can dream, right?

Ok, now share the LOVE and let me know what you think of these!  They could be embellished in SO many other ways, too (if you aren’t too busy washing dish towels like me) so let me know if you make some!  If you have a Valentine craft idea I would love to hear about it!

xoxo,

Claire

Tagged as: Crafts, Decorated Kitchens, Heart Dish Towels, Valentine's Day Crafts, Valentine's Kitchen Towels