Dish Towel to Skirt

Turn a dish towel into a child's pencil or full skirt.  The second skirt, the one with hearts is made out of three towels.

Buy two or three dish towels.  Depending on how full you want the skirt.  For this skirt I used 2 towels.  These towels are more like tea towels, not fluffy woven towels.  Lay out the towels to determine how long and wide they are.  Cut the towels to the desired length.  I did not cut any off the width on this skirt.

Sew the long sides together.  Place right sides together and stitch each edge from top to bottom, stitch both sides together.

This next step is not completely necessary, but gives the skirt a more finished feel.  Press the newly sewn seam out.  Next topstitch about 1/8" away from seam on both sides of the seam and on both seams.  Once both sides are finished, finish the top edge.  You can either serge the top, or do a zig-zag stitch.

Fold the waist band over 1.5 to 2 inches.  This depends on how thick your elastic is.  Mark with a pin where you are going to begin stitching and where you will end, leave a 3 inch gap.  I also put a tag in the back, I usually use leftover bias tape (any ribbon will work too.)  Sew from pin to pin leaving the gap open.  Sew another line around the top edge about an 1/8 of an inch from the top.  To match the side seams I added another stitched line to the top and the bottom of the waist band.  Before you sew it closed add the elastic.  I use a safety pin attached to one end to feed it through the newly formed casing.  If you can have the intended recipient try on the skirt to make sure the elastic fits right.  Once you have done this sew up the gap.  Because the towel was already finished on the end I did not hem the skirt, if had cut both ends you would need to hem at this point.  

This is a fun easy skirt and with so many dish towel options it is an inexpensive project too.