If you’ve been hanging out here for any amount of time, you’ve come to know that I believe that it’s the little things that make life extraordinary.
There is absolutely no need to have pretty embellished valentine towels in your powder room or bath.
Truly, we don’t need fancy towels.
What if your friend gives you a bit of fabric?
What if ivory hand towels the precise color of the fabric are discontinued and on sale for just $2.09 each?
What would you do? Get out the scissors and sewing machine and embellish a few towels for Valentine’s Day?
Seems like a good plan to me.
The sewing machine doesn’t come out very often. I have very little confidence in the sewing department. It’s one of those areas where you need to practice your craft in order to be comfortable with it.
When I was in college I made everything for my dorm room. I took down drapes that were there and made my own. I even embellished all my pillow cases with lace and ribbons that I bought by weight. In fact, I still have those pillow cases and use them. And if I needed a new skirt or dress, I made that too. I even made my very simple eyelet lace wedding dress. Nothing I made was complicated or elaborate. But, because I sewed often, I had confidence in my skills and in my machine.
Over the years, I traded up and got a better sewing machine. And the better the machine, the less I sewed. I exchanged my presser foot for a big cooking canner, which I used to dye my reed. Basket weaving became my hobby, along with wood working and gardening and bicycling and walking. And then life just got too busy and I did very little crafting until I started this blog.
Confidence in sewing or crafting, comes with the doing. Don’t laugh, but even sewing the buttons on this towel was a little bit of a challenge. Trying to get the thread even without picking up the threads from the towel was tricky.
Again…I realized that as hard as I tried…it wasn’t perfect. And it wasn’t going to be perfect.
It’s a good thing the Nester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful.” I cannot tell you how much that simple statement has done for me. My mom used to make something and say it was “good enough.” I used to bristle when I heard her say that as I was growing up. She was an avid knitter, and I know that she had unraveled many a sweater when she was quite far into it when she discovered a mistake. But, generally, “good enough” for her was good enough. I, in turn, was working on achieving that elusive thing we call perfection.
Guess what?! These embellished valentine towels are not perfect.
I’m not going to point out all the imperfections. And I hope that you don’t enlarge them on your computer so that you can find the imperfections either.
Instead, I’ll tell you how I made them…sorta.
This is the first non tutorial I think I have for the blog. You see I had an idea in my head, but pretty much just embellished as I went along and didn’t take any pictures except the beginning and the end.
The towel embellished with the ruffle and buttons is pretty straight forward. I simply took a wide width of fabric pressed the edges under and set it aside while I took another piece of fabric and sewed it together and ruffled it. I then attached the ruffle to the wide fabric and then sewed the whole business onto the towel. The little extra was the addition of the buttons which came from the button box. This was the hardest part of the whole project. That is a lot of fabric to send a needle through. But, I did it without puncturing my finger. Yay!
The towel with the bow was super easy. The hardest part was cutting the fabric so that I had two lengths that matched. I didn’t want to waste fabric doing this. In the end it isn’t a perfect match, but you cannot tell. To embellish this towel, I made two “sashes” and sewed them on the towel, kind of like putting strings on an apron. The buttons forming the heart….they were the challenge of this towel. How to arrange them into a heart-shaped pattern and sew them on? What did I do? I grabbed my tacky glue and placed a small dab on each button to hold it in place. Then I put an embroidery hoop over that area to keep it the terry cloth a little taut and sewed on the buttons.
For just a little effort, and very little money, we have a pair of embellished valentine towels to dress up the powder room. These towels would go for a pretty penny at a boutique shoppe.
They are so pretty, I don’t want any one to use them, just in case they don’t launder well. Actually they will probably do just fine. But, remember how I lack confidence in my sewing skills? Yeah. There is that possibility that my towels won’t be perfect any more. Yes…that is a possibility. But, even more, what’s the point if our guests must be told the towels are just for looks?
If we are living extraordinary lives, we help our friends and guests feel comfortable using the pretty things. In fact, we don’t hold back the best things, we use them. Every day. That’s being extraordinary!
If you’ve never embellished towels before, give it a try.
Choose a fabric to match your bath, or something seasonal, or for the next holiday. Have fun with it! Get that dusty sewing machine off the shelf and build your sewing confidence, created some embellished valentine towels….for next Valentine’s Day!
If you’d like more Valentine’s Day ideas, please check out these posts:
Sweet Heart Hand Pies for Your Valentine
Quick & Easy Transformation :: Christmas to Valentine’s Day
DIY Inspiration | Decorating a Vintage Window for Valentine’s Day
A Box Disguised as a Stack of Letters ~Filled with Words of Affirmation
Thank you for stopping by today.
I appreciate you and your sweet comments make my day.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Diane
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Diane, those are gorgeous! I’d wish you were my partner in a craft swap, but I’d feel bad giving you the short end of the stick … what you got in return wouldn’t be anywhere near as neat. But my heart would be in it! (No Valentine pun intended.)
Haha!! It’s always the heart that counts. 🙂 Thanks LuAnn…you know to make my smile.
Hope your Valentine’s Day was special. [hugs]
These are beautiful! What a creative idea. Thanks so much for sharing! Now I will have to try embellishing some towels.
Thanks Mrs. T!!! Yes! Yes! You must try embellishing some towels.
Hope your Valentine’s Day was extraordinary!
Diane, your towels are adorable. I have been known to battle with the perfection monster too. I have to remind myself that absolutely nothing is perfect. When I was a teenager I competed in a horse drill team . My wonderful grandma was helping to alter costumes by adding fabric with a stretch fabric to the crotch so we could get on the horse without splitting the seams. They were not perfect and this upset my mother but my grandmother insisted that no one would see the crotch of the costumes on a galloping horse. It became a family saying and I often hear her voice reminding me that “no one will see it on a galloping horse”.
Great towels.
Traci
Thanks for stopping by with your kind and thoughtful words,Traci.:)
Perfection can be a really big monster to fight. I love the phrase you still repeat from your grandmother.
Hope your weekend is Extraordinary!
What beautiful towels!
Thank you Marilyn!!!
Happy belated Valentine’s Day!!
So sweet!
Thanks Suzi!!!
These are just so pretty Diane! I usually don’t do much if any decorating for Valentines. This year was no different as I have been working extra hours and had to work Valentine evening. Today the boys are gone snowmobiling and it’s just my daughter and I. But tomorrow I will have a nice sit down dinner for all of us to make up for it.
Have a lovely weekend! ~Deborah
Thank you! For me…the decor depends on the busyness or purposefulness of my time.
Glad you’ll be enjoying a your special meal with your family, Deborah. I’m sure they will feel so blessed.
These are SO cute! Great job! I love the ruffle and buttons details.
Thank you so much Tasha!! It was fun to do something a little different (that would be different for me – LOL).
Hope your weekend is extraordinary!
Adorable! I love both sweet details.Thanks for sharing this! Would love to have you visit me sometime 🙂
Have a wonderful day!
Hugs from Portugal,
Ana Love Craft
http://www.lovecraft2012.blogspot.com
Hi Ana!! Thank you so much for your kind encouraging words!!
Hope your new week is Extraordinary!!
Oh my I love them, and they are so cute. especially like the bow and heart one. I wish I had a friend who gave me that ever so pretty fabric!!!!
Thanks Cathy! I am seriously blessed. 😉 It’s so close to red and white toile which I LOVE.
Blessings!
I love decorative towels but have never done this – so cute and original. Stopping by from Monday Funday!
This was my first go-around with towels too. Really…it’s pretty easy. I see more in the works. 😉
Hope you give it a try!
Diane these towels are so pretty and unique – just love them! They caught my eye over at the Monday Funday Party.
Thank you so much Marie!! 🙂
Best wishes for a most Extraordinary week!
They are super cute and you did a great job! I have just started decorating my own towels. After pricing them at the stores for $12, I knew I could make my own for a lot cheaper….so fun! I’d love for you to share this at our sewing, craft, and recipe party! 🙂 http://sewlicioushomedecor.com/saturday-showlicious-craft-recipe-showcase-3/
Marti
Thank you for sharing these at our party!! They are soooo cute!!
Marti
Thank you so much Marti!! It really is amazing the savings! 🙂
Oh, those turned out cute. And what a wonderful set of towels.
I never excelled on the sewing machine, but I could hand sew fairly well once upon a time. And of course we had a house filled with embellished towels edged with crochet and lace and pretties. Yup–they stayed in the closet most of the year and people kindly avoided using them if they were remembered to be brought out of the closet and actually used. LOL I’ve since learned the joy of ribbons, dried flowers, buttons and embellishments you could glue to the ribbons–which means simply attaching them to the folded towel and using what’s hanging in the bathroom already. *laughing* Sometimes small children remove the ribbons and ask their Nana’s to put them in their hair–which makes them extremely versatile kind of things. 😉
Mel….I love your idea of attaching embellishment to towels. That is totally clever! And even better when they become hair pretties. 🙂
Hope your day is Extraordinary. 🙂
These valentine towels are wonderful…so creative!
You are so sweet to say that, Bev. 🙂 Thank you!!
Diane, how beautiful and fun! Yes, sewing can be frustrating when you’re not using your machine often. But you persevered, and look what pretty things came from it! I love the ruffle, and of course the button heart.
Blessings!
Kim
Kim….I am in awe of your sewing talent. Thank you for being so encouraging. I could just give you a big ol’ hug!
so sweet…and some of my favorite things – ruffles and buttons!
Thanks Holly!!! 🙂
Thanks for sharing these adorable hand towels at TTF!
Thank you so much Linda!!
Hope your weekend has been truly extraordinary!
Don’t you love it when everything comes together with such beautiful results? Gift, budget friendly towels, time, back shelf talents pulled forward and center — resulting in great creativity and oh so pretty luxuries! thanks for sharing!
Charlene…you said it so well. Thank you so much for your sweet and encouraging words. 🙂 You warmed my heart. 🙂
They are very sweet Diane. Thank you fro sharing them.
Awwww…..thank you Kerryanne…:)
I loooooove these! They turned out amazing! And I love the fabric you picked for the towels. I wish I could say I can sew a button, but I can’t! I wait for my mom to come visit and then hand her whatever needs mending. It’s embarrassing. You did a great job 🙂
Ok these are amazing!