Homemade/Handmade Gift Idea - Hanging Towels

I've wanted to share this homemade gift idea with y'all for weeks! But too many people on my gift-giving list were getting these and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. This gift is great for teachers, people with mobility issues, parents of toddlers, or people who are just too lazy to bend over and pick up a fallen dish towel!

Hanging Towel

Not only are these gifts useful by anyone with a kitchen, they are also super easy to make. I whipped up a whole stack of them in about 30 minutes. And, if you don't have access to a sewing machine, these can be done by hand if you needed to. 

First, start with a coordinating dish towel and pot holder. You need the kind of pot holder that has the loop in the middle. Corner loops will not work for this project. I bought these 5 piece sets at Wal-Mart and was able to get 1-2 gifts out of each set. You can also buy the dish towels and pot holders at dollar stores to save a little more money. I think I spent $6 on this 5-pack which makes 2 hanging towels.

To begin, fold the dish towel into thirds (mine were already folded properly, straight from the packaging). Make sure your towel is folded to the same width as your potholder.

Then, line up the middle of your pot holder with the middle of the towel. Keep the loop to your right side so it is on the back half of the hanging towel. Since the stitching is so short, I didn't bother with pinning it. A couple of mine shifted, so I would recommend that you pin it if you are a perfectionist.

Next, get ready to sew. I had to fold the right side of my towel in on itself a few times to help make my line straight. I recommend a zig-zag stitch for this project because you have so many pieces of fabric to work through and want it to stand up to being pulled on and washed frequently.

And that's almost it. Once you've finished the stitch down the middle, you just need to hand sew a coordinating button onto the non-loop side of the pot holder. A 2-pack of clear buttons was $0.67 at Wal-Mart, making this a very inexpensive gift.

(before I sewed the buttons on, see top picture for completed project)

Now though, I'm left with this pile of pot holders and could really use some creative ideas for how to re-purpose them. Leave a comment if you have any suggestions or links to share.

EDIT: Ack! I'm mortified. I have had towels like these hanging in my kitchen for several years and thought they were such a good idea that I suggested this post to one of my favorite craft blogs (Dollar Store Crafts). Then, when I was browsing their past posts I saw a post almost identical to mine - published in December. I must have read it and clearly it influenced this post even if I didn't realize it at the time. So, I just want to take this moment and give credit to Rhonda for her original post - Making $2 Hanging Kitchen Towels. It must have seeped into my subconscious and prompted me to write my own post.