Pretty Dish Mats

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Last year I made this dish mat inspired by a post by Darby.  { See her full tutorial in PDF format right here }.  I've loved using my pretty dish mat - it's great to set dishes on as they come out of the dishwasher or for drying hand washable dishes.  A few weeks ago my sister mentioned that she wanted one.  So, like any good sister, I got to work and made one for her.

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Supplies for this project are simple - fabric scraps and and old towel.  I wanted to be able to make two dish mats from one towel so I planned the size of my dish mats around the size of the towel.

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Use a straight edge and rotary cutter to cut strips of fabric.  I used (3) strips cut to 7" x 20" and (2) strips cut to 3-1/4" x 20".

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Sew strips together using a 1/4" seam allowance.

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When your top is finished, iron seams flat to one side.  Next, I sewed a straight stitch across the top just to make the top a bit more decorative.  Darby talks about this in her tutorial in more depth.

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Place your towel and top right sides together, pin, and sew around edges with a 1/4" seam allowance.  Make sure to leave a 10" opening on one side so that you can turn your dish mat right side out.

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Trim around edges and turn right side out.  Press the open edges in so that you will have a neat, finished edge.

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Now sew all along the top edge of the dish mat using a 1/4" seam allowance.

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Dish mat is finished!

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The front looks like this:

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And the terry cloth on the back:

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After my sister's was finished, I decided to make another one for myself using up some fabric scraps.

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At use in the kitchen:

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Wouldn't these make a great hostess gift or house-warming present?

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Happy Saturday.....Hope you are enjoying your weekend and staying warm where ever you are.  It is a chilly 7 degrees here this morning!

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