Decorated Towels

    When I was in my teens, I joined a 4H Club in my hometown.  The club had a group of ladies that would meet to craft.  I was the youngest at the classes, but I just wanted to learn how to craft anything.  One of the first things that I was taught was how to embellish towels to decorate a bathroom.  At the time, this was the "in thing" in my hometown.  Everyone wanted to have a decorated towel for their guest bathroom, to impress their guests, of course.  I made many but have only found one (in the picture). 
   There are two different ways to do this, with a sewing machine or with a glue gun.  Most people made them using a glue gun, because these towels were not used for drying your body only your hands.  They could be tossed in the wash on a gentle cycle and if any decoration came undone they would just hot glue it back on.  But some preferred sewing, but keep in mind that some items are hard to sew using a machine and hand sewing may be practical. 
   Materials include:
1. Towel in desired color (I usually bought them at the dollar stores).
2.  Ribbons of different sizes
3.  Pins
4.  Glue gun and sticks or Sewing machine and thread
5.  Fabric
6.  Miniature fabric flowers
7.  Lace
8.  Fabric Scissors
9.  Paper bag to make pattern

     The amount of lace, ribbon and fabric will depend on your pattern, but for this I used two yards of 1/4 inch pink ribbon and 1 yard, 1/8 inch wide, of the same pink color ribbon for the bows that go in the middle of the weaved lace and the heart.  I used two gold colored mini fabric flowers and two different laces, two yards of each.  I cannot remember the name of the lace that you can weave the ribbon through, but I love the effect!  I will just call it weave lace for the moment. 

   Procedure:
1.  Cut a pattern on a paper bag of the design you want on your towel.  Here I made a 12 inch heart. (I had made some with Christmas patterns, one with a basket pattern and a seashell pattern.  I will try to post these patterns and the pictures, if I ever find them.)  When you have the heart shaped, cut it out and then trace the outline on the wrong side of the fabric.  Cut out your fabric and set aside.
2.  Fold your towel in half and measure the 2 inch lace to fit the width of your towel plus 1 inch.  Cut two strips of lace the measured width plus 1 inch.  You will use the extra inch to fold the lace behind the towel and make it look neat.  Use glue to apply ;ace to the bottom seam of the towel (remember to leave half and inch to later glue or sew on the wrong side and hide the edges of the lace. 
3.  Now glue the lace to the under layer of the towel at the seams, following instructions on step three.
4.  Measure the weave lace and cut to the width of the towel plus 1 inch.  After cutting, use 1/4 inch pink ribbon to weave through the lace and cut when all has been weaved.  Use the hot glue to adhere the weaved lace to the towel approximately two inches above where the other lace was located.
5.  Place the heart in the middle of the towel at least two inches above the middle trim and secure with some pins before starting to glue it down.
6.  Take the pins out and weave the remaining 1/4 inch ribbon through the weave lace.  Glue the corners of the heart with the weaved lace starting the V-point of the heart, until done.  Fold a small piece of the weaved lace under to make it look neat in the joining V and glue. 
7.  Make double bows out of your slim ribbon and glue them in the center of the straight line middle lace and on the V point in the heart. 
8. Cut the stems of the two gold mini flowers and put a generous amount of glue on the back side and glue on top of the double bows made on step 7. 

Optional:  You can use something to stuff your heart and make it seem like a pillow or just 3 dimensional. 

The picture of the heart towel was taken about a month ago and I made this towel almost 15 years ago using hot glue, so it has maintained itself pretty well. I have never had to re-glue anything.  I hope you like it!
ECC Jay