New life for old towels

We like to go camping, but everytime we go I have to get hand towels, etc, out of our linen cupboard to take with us. I read an article in a Grass Roots Magazine edition about using old towels to make hand towels and face washers. I had some old towels that I was thinking of giving to my husband as rags for use in the shed, so I got them out. This is also a great way to use up any scraps of material that you have.

Firstly, cut the towels to the size required and trim off any frayed bits. I made two different styles - on some I cut a piece of scrap material the same size as the piece of towel and layed the material and towel right sides together. I then overlocked three edges together, turned the material and towel right sides out, attached a ribbon to use as a hook and sewed the open edge together.

The other style was to use either a strip of material, wide ribbon or bias binding to create and edging for the towel.

As I was making these for use when camping, I wasn't worried if the material, cotton thread and ribbon didn't match the colour of the towel. When I make some for use in the home, I will be a bit more selective.

What I ended up with are some new hand towels and smaller cloths that can be used as dish cloths or cleaning cloths. They all have a loop of ribbon on them so they can hang up somewhere. Much better than using them as rags or sending them to the compost or rubbish bin!