kellen46

I get damask table cloths from a local thrift shop for a few dollars. They are usually donated from hotels and restaurants with meeting rooms and such. I can get from four to eight nice sized dish towels from one table cloth. I just cut and usually have at least one side already hemmed. I figure I spend less than fifty cents for each towel. Sometimes I find plain linen cloths, the linen is especially nice and I save it for hand embroidery. I steer away from obviously poly blend fabric. I decorate, embellish or machine embroider them. They make great dish towels and the damask pattern adds a bit of posh to the finished product. My kids and grands tell me they are great to use. I asked my DIL once if she was tired of my homey gifts and she gasped out....no if you didn't send them I would have to buy some, I use them all the time and they are better than the ones in the store. Here is the simple way I hem them. I do a serged edge in a matching thread, then I just turn down this quarter inch and machine sew a straight stitch along it. Nice durable finish and quick and easy to do. Some times I find those great printed table cloths from the fifties and those I cannot bear to cut...I just use them as is. However one especially nice cloth was chewed by a mouse. I cut around the hole and made valences for the sewing room. I have had them for a long time and they still look good in there. Some I know have made camp shirts or aprons out of them but NOOOO, still cannot bear to cut them up. One last tip, I get those great damask napkins and they make great hanging towels, you know those towels that have a top that folds over and uses a button to secure it to a stove handle or fridge door. I just drafted a pattern piece and use the fabric to embellish some dish towels for a coordinated set.