Sunday, August 18, 2013

A work day - crochet top towels

Another scarf was finished this morning (my FAVORITE so far).  
Pattern:  Arugula Scarf
Size:  2" x 80"
This is the third of this pattern that I have worked up;  and other than adding more initial chains (due to the lighter weight yarn, I chained 300 to get the length to 80"), I followed the rest of the pattern exact.  
It is SO light and has almost a lacy weight to it, and the colors should blend nicely with any color.  I can totally see this as an accessory to jeans and one of those adorable cutesy T's that are all the hit lately.
I ended up using just a tad more than one skein of some el'chipo yarn from a bargain bin.  
Yarn label info:  "Flamme"  75% cotton, 17% acrylic, 8% polyamide.  50gr / 197 yards.  Made in Turkey.  It doesn't mention any yarn weight, but it has a "2" feel to it.



Then, feeling just a wee bit ambitious, I ACTUALLY ventured downstairs to the sewing room.  LOL. No quilting was in mind though.....  
My MIL sent me on the mission of working up some crochet-top kitchen towels for some craft fairs she has coming up this Fall.  She says they "sell like hotcakes," and last year she was asked over-n-over again by customers if she had any to sell.  She didn't;  this is one craft she doesn't do.  I think she would get some made up from one of her neighbors, but the lady didn't provide any to MIL last year.

So........
My kitchen-towel venture was attempted a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn't liking the unpolished look of my first few.  The crocheting bit was easy-peasy, but it was the attaching-to-towel part that I wasn't satisfied with. 

My first trial was to simply stick the hook through the towel fabric about 1/2" below the cut edge.  Eh.....it was alright, but I was worried the top may eventually fray off from the towel.  [[Can you say 'christmas gift to family' this year? ;) ]]

My second trial was to use the method shown here (tutorial), but after stitching along whole edge, I didn't care for how the front or back looked.  I thought maybe folding the edge over and seaming it with the sewing machine would work.

Well..... it sorta did, but didn't.  The seam was WAAAY too noticeable!  [[Yup, another Christmas gift will be heading to some lucky family member!  LOL]]

So.....REVERSE THE ORDER, Amy!  Seam first!

So, that's what I did.   And then, using a blanket stitch (which I knew how to do after watching this tutorial!), I attached the yarn to the top of the towel, hiding the turned over seam so nicely :)

Then it came time to needing buttons.  I simply FORGOT to look through my MIL's button stash the last time I was at her house!  Duh.  However, one lil' amazing suggestion from the first video tutorial link (here it is again) had me working on my own crochet-buttons!  Genius!  I wouldn't have thought to do that!

And then, through no planning of my own -- it just happened from the way my tails ended up... I simply used those tails to attach/tie the buttons to the towels.  SLICK!  

On my latest towel, I tried tapering off the flap to finish off with a nice "V" edge.    

So NOW, after a bit of trial-n-not-really-liking-all-parts-of-attempts, I think I have this craft licked.  With Paul still snoozing away (he ended his last night of night-shift last night/this morning), I think I'll find a movie to have as background noise, and work on some more towels to actually give to MIL for her craft sales.

I think this qualifies for Kathy's "slow-stitch-Sunday."  Right?

Happy Sunday everyone!

7 comments:

Winona said...

Very nice. I have made several of these, but never thought about making my own button. Good going!

Deb A said...

Great job! I just hope my Mom doesn't pop over here and request that I take such care in making her's next time! Love the button you made. Enjoy the evening.

Quilter Kathy said...

Love the scarf AND the towels...what fabulous Christmas gifts...you can never have too many of those!

Andra Gayle said...

Great job! Someday you must teach me!

libbyquilter said...

your scarf looks beautiful and i think that you have the towel making down to a science~! and they look really nice.

:-)
libbyQ

Kevin the Quilter said...

These towels are great!

Andee said...

Way to tackle it head on and come up with a way to do it that looks great! When and if I ever get around to trying this I will be referring back to this post!