Tuesday 12 August 2008

How to repurpose an old towel

Another one that's not too exciting ... but a useful thing anyway! As someone with long hair I can confirm that it's mightily annoying to have your towel spontaneously unwrap and drop dripping hair everywhere.
We all have those towels that have seen better days, lost their "fluffiness" and are, frankly, only good for wiping dogs' feet.

This is quite a good way to use an old towel. Or you could use a nice new one, if you wanted to give it as a gift.

Start by marking out the towel. Fold in half, and for ease we are going to use the existing finished edge (of course, you could use some bias binding if you wanted).

Measure - on the folded side - 23cm up and mark with chalk. Then measure 8cm in from that mark. Then measure 8cm down from the same mark (ie 15cm up from edge).

These marks mean that we can make a curved mark on the folded side. I hope that makes sense.

Then free-hand draw a curve from your inner mark to the outer edge of your towel (it should be about 60cms long).

You can see on the left-hand side of this picture that I have made marks at 23cms from the finished edge, then 8cms down from that and 8cms in, and connected them in a curve.

Cut out the shape, and in the corner pin about 10cms of folded elastic .

Use your new overlocker *smile* or a zig-zag stitch around the curved edge.


Stitch over the elastic bit a few times and trim into a neat edge.


Turn the right side out, and sew a button in the middle at the front.


To wear, simply put the turban over your head, twist hair in the long side, pull up over the top of your head and fasten the elastic over the button.





13 comments:

Things Hand Made said...

I glanced quickly at your new post and then a small child interupted me for a drink and as I got it I wondered how you could repurpose a "trowel" ! Now I understand.

Anonymous said...

My hair isn't long but I still want one/xx

Christy said...

I have always wanted to know how to make these. Thanks!

Celia said...

Oh, thanks so much for the idea!
You can't imagine how many people I have already thought about gifting this! I need to make many of this, lol...
And, of course, I have tons of old towels at home, the water here is so bad that the towels and linens are always old! lol...

Indigo Blue said...

Hi,
I love my overlocker too. Do not know how I manged without one before. It makes garment making feel more possible and people are very impressed whenyou say I made it myself. they think you are pulling their leg! Love the love idea, very clever.

Junie Moon said...

What a great idea and a perfect thing to add to a gift set of "spa" luxury items.

Anonymous said...

STOP BEING SO CLEVER. My sister in law wears funky head scarves so i could re fasion this idea as a funky head piece although she would love the towel idea too.

Jody said...

Hi,

Any chance you can give us the measurements in "inches"? Also, do you fold the towel width-wise or lengh-wise.........?

Thanks so much! Great idea!!!

Jody

Marmadaisy said...

Sure. The measurement in inches is (xcm divided by 2.5, or 2.54 if you want to be really precise)but for this item it really doesn't have to be that specific. You can fold the towel any way you like so long as it's big enough. I folded width wise, but it doesn't make much difference.

Ginger said...

This tutorial so awesome!
What a wonderful gift to make yup going to buy some towel fast to start making these!
You rock thank you so much for sharing this tutorial with us!
hugs ginger

officina dei colori said...

hi, i'm francesca from italy
your tutorial is simply fantastic!!!
cool idea
i made two for my boyfriend who has really long abd heavy dreadlocks
i'm going to write a post about your project on my blog(and link your!!)
if you want to have a look...
http://equazioni.wordpress.com/

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this tutorial, what a great idea. Linda M BC Canada

Anonymous said...

this is so neat! im about to make one for my mom =] thanks for posting