How to Make a Dish Towel Tote Bag

Riya Yadav, INN/Gwalior, @infodeaofficial

Dish towels have never been deemed so important or ubiquitous as they have during these weeks of lockdown. But they are even more multipurpose than you might expect, or so say Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte. The sisters are known for their imagination and ability to find beauty in unexpected places.

“We are all stuck at home, but even if you are just hauling laundry from one room to another, it makes you feel better to be able to put stuff away in something that cheers you up,” Laura Mulleavy said,” We have so many dish towels around and are always in need of reusable totes that we can also use as storage.”

So they decided to make one out of a dish towel and some costume jewelry. Here’s how you can, too.

Your tool kit:

• One cotton or linen dish towel, approximately 20 by 27 inches. Ideally striped.
• Two costume jewelry necklaces, like the plastic beaded kind that are handed out at Mardi gras, or one chain link plastic necklace.
• One thick ribbon 
• Sewing machine with cotton-poly threads or, if you are sewing by hand, a tapestry needle and embroidery thread.
• One thick ribbon
• Sewing machine with cotton-poly threads or, if you are sewing by hand, a tapestry needle and embroidery thread.
• Straighter ruler
• Scissors

Step 1

Fold your chosen dish towel in half so that the inside is on the outside.

Step 2

Create a bottom. At the fold, measure two inches on each side, vertically. Mark and draw a line from one dot to the other. Then flatten the lower part of the folded towel so that it makes T -shape perpendicular to the body, four inches across.

Step 3

Sew each side of the flattened part together with a straight stitch half an inch from each edge so that the sides of the T are closed.

Step 4 

Sew each side together with a straight stitch, vertically from the bottom of you V to the upper end of the folded towel.

Step 5

Make the sides. Measures a quarter of an inch from each side seam and straight stitch vertically from the top around the bottom and up the other side to create a soft rectangular side that will turn the sac into a box shape.

Step 6

Fold each necklace in half.

Step 7 

Cut a ribbon in four pieces, each piece four inches long.

Step 8

Measure to the corner of the upper and open Tip of the bag.

Step 9

Secure the loops to the bag at two stitch points, the upper one-eighth of an inch from the top edge of the edge.

Step 10 

Put the bag over your arm and go!