Summer Sewing Project : Beach Towel for Two

It's summer and therefore: time for the beach!
No more sticky sandy lines between your beachtowels anymore with the Towel for Two!
Easily button up your towels together to get a perfect kingsized towel for 2.
The towels also have a pocket at the top in which you can store your clothes thereby transforming the pocket automatically into a pillow! Also handy to store your belongings in when you are going for a swim and you don't want to keep your valuables exposed!

So if you want to be comfortable, cosy, stylish and sand free this summer: follow the following steps and make your very own towel for two!

2 Towels of 80cm x 160cm
1 Towel large enough to cut 2 pieces of 40cm x 50cm from
Cotton Fabric
9 Larger buttons
4 Smaller buttons
Ruler
Pins
Chalk
Needle and Thread
Sewing machine
Iron

You can use whatever towel size you want, but further measurements given in this tutorial apply to the above measurements.

cut two towels with a measurement of 80cm cm x 160cm

Cut two pieces from another towel, preferably a different colour than your large beach towels.
These pieces should measure 40cm x 50cm.

TIP: Its easier to draw one out, fold over, pin together and cut 2 in one go! This saves time and you're sure to have two of equal size.

Cut a large strip of fabric with a width of 15cm for the larger towels
and a width of 10cm for the smaller ones.

Fold the sides of the strips towards the middle and press

Fold over again and iron.

Now you have a nice strip to sew around your beach towels.

Your strip should be long enough to go around the entire towel in one piece, if your strip is too short to go around your whole towel:

Get two strips, undo the last fold for both and place them on top of eachother with the remaining fold facing outwards...

Sew them together along the red line and trim off close to the line

Fold back, now you should have a strip long enough to go around the entire towel.

Pin the cotton strips around your towels, make sure to keep the corners nice and neat!

Sew on your cotton strips using a straight stitch.
Remember to always backstitch at the start and the end!

You should now have your two large and two small towels all lined with the strips.

Sew 9 buttonholes on 1 of the large towels along the long (160cm) side. 
Mark where you want your buttonholes.
Sew the first buttonhole 7cm away from the top and then add another one every 18cm to evenly divide them along the the whole side.

Make sure to always make your buttonholes 3 to 6mm wider than your button is!

Every standard sewing machine comes with a buttonhole setting.
Mine in this picture shows the 1-2-3-4 step

1. stitch up
2. stitch across
3. stitch down
4. stitch across

Cut a straight line between the stitches of your buttonhole using an exacto knife or seam ripper.

Align the strip of the towel with the buttonholes evenly over the strip of the other large towel

Now, go with your pencil or chalk through the buttonholes to mark where you need to sew your buttons.

I advice to use buttons with a little loop on the back as displayed in this picture because you are working with thick fabric.

Hand stitch them on the markings you made in the previous step!

Also sew two buttonholes along the 40cm side on both of the smaller towels.
When you keep a ruler (or measuring tape) beside the 40cm side, you can mark a buttonhole at 13cm and one at 27cm to have them evenly divided.

Now evenly position the smaller towels on the top of the larger towels, pin them in place and sew them on.

Remember to keep the side with the buttonholes open! So you only sew it on on 3 sides!

Don't forget to backstitch at beginning and end!

Using needle and thread, sew the smaller buttons onto the towel so that you are able to open and close the pockets which you've sewn on in the previous step!

Button the two beach towels together and admire your work!

In this picture the towels are separated and i've put some clothes in the pocket (pillow!) on the right! My cats approved of this project!

Happy sewing and have a beautiful summer!