Reusable kitchen roll is not only eco friendly but also saves you money too. You can use them in the place of kitchen roll, for wiping up spills, or with a cleaning spray instead of disposable kitchen wipes. The toweling underside makes them nice and absorbent and you can just put them through the wash when they get dirty. The perfect sustainable sewing project for your home.
Supplies
To make 8 you will need:
A half metre of toweling fabric. I used this turquoise toweling fabric from Minerva.com
2 fat quarters of quilting cotton, I used 2 gorgeous Dashwood prints from Minerva.com: framed birds and bird outlines.
I prefer to use darker fabrics for this project so any stains don’t show up.
Co-ordinating thread – I used Gutermann Sew All 189
A point turner will also come in handy if you have one. If not use your fingers or a pen.
Seam allowance – ¼ an inch unless otherwise stated.
Tip – The toweling will shed all over the place when you cut it and sew with it so ensure your workspace is clear when you start to make it easier to clean up afterwards. Otherwise, you’ll be picking fluff off your other projects for weeks.
Cutting
Toweling fabric – cut 8 x 9 inch squares
Quilting fabric – Cut 4 x 9 inch squares from each fat quarter.
How to make reusable kitchen towels
Place one of your toweling squares right side up, then place one of your quilting fabric squares right side down on top of it aligning the edges.
Use wonder clips or pins to hold them in place. You need to leave a 3 inch gap in the bottom when sewing around the edge so I use red Wonder clips either side of the gap to remind me to stop sewing there.
Sew around the edge using a quarter an inch seam allowance, back stitch a few stitches at each corner to reinforce the corner for when you turn through. Leave a 3 inch gap in the middle of 1 edge.
Trim the corners to reduce bulk before turning through.
Turn them the right way around through the 3 inch gap. Use a point turner to poke the corners out. This is where those extra reinforcing stitches come in handy, you are less likely to poke right through.
Press them to remove any creases caused by the turning through, then top stitch right around the top an 1/8th of an inch from the edge to close the gap.
Quilt a diagonal line from corner to corner to hold the 2 layers in place. I just eyeball the line personally but you can mark it on with a ruler and chalk or hera marker if you prefer.
Now your reusable kitchen wipes are ready to use. I store mine in the kitchen drawer, but you could attach Velcro if you want to stick them together and wrap them around a roll. Put one piece on the front left, the other piece on the underside right.
As a housewarming gift they look great rolled up with a ribbon around them as shown above.
For other sewing projects for the home click here.
This project was written by Fiona Pullen from The Sewing Directory.
