DIY Un-paper Towels with Plastic Roll

Today I finally got around to making un-paper towels...reusable cloth towels to replace paper towels. They cut costs, save trees, and keep more trash out of the landfills! 

Plus, making them yourself, you can find the perfect fabric to match your personality and kitchen decor. I've bought Viva paper towels for years now, and I always get the three pack of designs, but there's really only one design I like (with the pears...so cute!), but none of them really match my colors.

In constructing my un-paper towels, I used a few tutorials that I found on Pinterest. The main tutorial that I followed was from Eliza at That Short Girl's Blog. While this is a pretty simple project, she explained the steps well. The problem with her tutorial was that it didn't include a plastic roll, and I really liked that idea so they didn't slouch on my dispenser. 

So I kept searching and along the way, I found Amy's tutorial at A Blossoming Life. She still didn't have the plastic roll, but there were a couple of interesting things about her un-paper towels. First, she sewed a wavy line caddy-corner across each towel to keep the two layers of fabric in place through the wash. I liked this idea and thought it added a pretty touch. The other item of interest was that she used velcro instead of snaps. When I first thought of making these, I thought velcro was the way to go because they'd be easier to rip off the roll, BUT in the end, I did decide to use snaps because I feared that the velcro (even the really nice velcro) would get all kinds of fuzz, strings, and general nastiness caught up in it. That didn't appeal to me.

Finally, I found Sabra's tutorial at Sew A Straight Line where she included easy to understand instructions on how to make the plastic roll. She also used a very cute decorative top stitch on her towels. This isn't something I did as I'm not that talented and I didn't feel like putting THAT much effort into it, but I absolutely love what she did.

Putting all of these together, I came up with my un-paper towels.

What you'll need:
1.5 yards flannel or knit fabric
1.5 yards terry cloth fabric
coordinating thread
plastic snaps and assembly tools (approximately 30 sets of snaps for 12 towels and the roll)
11.5"x6" plastic canvas
general sewing supplies

First, cut your fabrics into 11.5" squares. - Now, I made a measuring oops and made my "squares" 11" tall x 11.5" wide on the first strip I cut, so I carried my oops through all 12 towels that I made. It worked, but remember to measure twice, cut once. :)

Pin your flannel/knit fabric and terry cloth right sides together, and sew them using a 3/8" seam allowance, leaving a 2" opening on one side. Trim the corners to reduce bulk. 

Turn the towels right side out by pulling through the 2" opening.

Use a chopstick or similar item to push the corners out.

Tuck the edges of the openings inside. And iron the seams flat.

For a nice finished look, top stitch around the towel about an 1/8" from the edge. This will also seal the opening that was used to turn the towels right side out.

At this point, you can stop sewing, or you can go ahead and sew the wavy line from one corner to the opposite corner. (I did this when I finished the top stitching, without cutting the thread.) 

Now, apply the snaps.

It's a little hard to see in this photo, but be sure to apply two female on one side and two male on the other side. If you have directional fabric like mine, be sure to always put the females on the same side and the males on the other side. Also, remember that you have to snap these together, so you'll want to be sure that you position the snaps in about the same place on each towel and place the snaps in the right direction to be snapped to the next towel (male end goes into female end).

All snapped together!

Now, you can make the plastic roll. Because I messed up measuring my fabric, I cut the plastic canvas 11"x6", but if you measured correctly, cut the canvas to 11.5" tall x 6" wide. Place three female snaps down one 11.5" side and three male snaps down the other 11.5" side. These will snap together to form the roll. 

Then, use the snaps on your towels to measure where to put the snaps in the middle. Make sure you use the proper side of the snap (male or female) to match up with the snaps on your towels. As you can see from the photo below, I lined the first snap up at the very edge, about halfway on the 6" side of the plastic canvas. Then, using the snaps on my towel, I had to bring the bottom snap in a couple of rows.

Snap the roll together and attach the towels. 

Roll them up and place the roll on your paper towel holder.

Can't wait to make another set with my I <3 Bacon!! flannel! I just have to get some navy blue or white snaps. I'm also hoping to find some cute cupcake fabric and some fabric with martini glasses to make even more. Ooooh...and maybe some snowflakes, clovers, and hearts for the holidays....so many ideas!

Family Cloth: The Down and Dirty part 2

I FINALLY got my system down for using family cloth. So far, it seems to be working pretty well with no smell.

It's pretty simple. I just wipe (still doing this for #1 only) and place in my newly made wet bag. Once a week, I simply wash the cloths with my laundry and place them back in my basket.

I chose to make my own wet bag so it would be just my style. If you enjoy sewing, I would recommend making your own bag. It's really not that difficult to do. Even the zipper wasn't horrible...just not that fun...especially without a zipper foot for my sewing machine. BUT, I will give you a few tips. I was going to give you a step by step tutorial, but my bag turned out terrible and I know I couldn't have explained it any better than Merrilee at the Dilley Dally Blog. 

Here's my tips:

1) DO NOT use a light satiny polyester fabric....okay, if you've worked with this type of fabric before and you know what you're doing, go ahead, but if not, just stay away from it. The fabric is beautiful, but it was a pain in the ass to cut as it slides around, and it frays like crazy. When I tried to cut two pieces at once using my rotary cutter, once piece was about two inches too small one way and an inch too small the other direction. It just isn't worth the hassle.

2) The Dilley Dally Blog doesn't give you dimensions for the bag (so you can determine the size you need), nor the seam allowance to use. I'm still not going to give you dimensions as it's really up to you how big you want your bag, but I will say that I made my bag 11" wide by 12" deep. I decided to use a half inch seam allowance, so I cut both the PUL and my outer satiny fabric 12"x13". Here's the thing...don't use a half inch seam allowance on your PUL...it bunches up inside the bag. Keep it at 1/4" or less. The half inch allowance on my satiny fabric was probably a good idea since it frays so much, but on a heavier standard fabric that doesn't fray as much you'd be just fine with a 1/4" allowance. I'd also make the PUL just slightly smaller than my outer bag...maybe an 1/8" smaller. One more point on dimensions: the handle would be perfect for fitting around your wrist, but I'd prefer it a little shorter to hang on my TP roll holder...maybe 7-8 inches long rather than 12.

3) Try adding a top stitch around the three sides of the bag like they did in this tutorial. That way, the PUL inside doesn't slide around inside the outer fabric, but stays put where it's supposed to be. This isn't a necessary step, but would be nice.

Now, back to family cloths and possible systems. There are a few different systems you could use, if you don't like the thought of this simple wet bag system. Here are the ways you can set up something in your own home.

• A wet/wet system: Using moistened cloths from a warming baby wipe holder to wipe and then placing them in a container of water and vinegar to soak and "disinfect" them before. Lots of extra work, unless you prefer it.
• A wet/dry system: Using warmed moistened cloths, but placing the used cloths in a hamper or "wet bag" until washing. This can cause some stink from the wet cloths waiting to be washed unless you're washing them frequently.
• A dry/wet system: Using dry cloths and placing them used in a container of water and vinegar. Tip: The water/vinegar solution can get really nasty in just a couple days; much more than a dry system.
• A dry/dry system: This is my preference. Dry cloth toilet paper works perfectly and I've not seen a need for soaking before washing. 

Hope you give family cloth a try!

DIY Yarn Holder

So about an month and a half ago, I ordered this beautiful custom-made yarn bowl with a locking lid on Etsy. Unfortunately, there was an issue with the lid, so the seller asked for more time to get it right. Since I want it to work and be gorgeous, I agreed. Unfortunately, with Kiera in my life (Happy 6 month birthday today, Kiki!), I can't knit as she goes after the yarn. 

Drives me crazy, but I wouldn't trade her in for anything.

So I needed something until my beautiful yarn bowl arrives, but I didn't want to spend tons of money. Then I found this great idea on pinterest for a cheap DIY yarn holder. Using an inexpensive throw away plastic food container, a drill and some grommets, you can have a perfect lidded yarn "bowl".

I went out today and bought generic containers from my local grocery store and 6mm grommets at Hobby Lobby. When I got home, I grabbed my drill, some scrap wood, and my hammer. I was going to have some fun bashing the crap out of things! :)

First, I put full skeins of yarn in my containers...I decided to do as Jenn suggested in her blog and put two holes on one end and a single hole on the other end, so that I could fit different sizes of skeins in my container as a single, double, or maybe even triple yarn bowl. So I made my marks for the center of the skeins.

Then I drilled out the three holes on the first container using a 3/8 drill bit. Unfortunately, the holes split. It may have been the bit I used or it may have just been me, but I decided not to use the drill on the second one.

So on the second one, I used my exacto knife to cut out the holes. While a pain, this worked much better for me.

To finish it off, I then installed the 6mm grommets as instructed on the package, using the scrap wood to protect my counter.

 The finished product!

Hopefully this will help allow me to knit while keeping Kiera out of my yarn!