Pinterest Project #2

I found an actual sewing project that I had the stuff for. Its actually been sitting there waiting to be done for months upon months. I needed a sewing break after the amount of quilting I did last year.

But I was itching to get back into the sewing room.  Sewing is  de-stressing for me. Except when I mess up. Then I get all kinds of cross. LOL.

Knowing camping season is upon us, I thought I would do a project related to that.  I pulled the box of already waiting supplies out and went to work. I LOVE it when its all there and ready and I don't have to go buy anything.

This project is a dish mat tutorial for a absorbent dish towel to drain your dishes on after washing.  Takes up much less space when packing for camping that a traditional dish drying rack and is very light weight also. Actually I used heavy bath towels from the rag bin so its not a light as all that.

I used an internet tutorial that can be found at Fly Through Our Window.  I like it better than some of the other tutorials because it had a little extra touch of piecing the top and doing some triple stitching to make it look fancier.

So my two mats:

A vegetable print and a honeycomb print. I'm not big on yellow but I had a hard time matching the vegetable print from fabrics I already had on hand.

This one reminds me of the 50's. It doesn't come across well. The pink has tomatoes in dark and light pink and aqua. The plain strips are aqua.  Very retro.

I decided to make two so one could be hanging up drying while the other is in use.

Start to finish these took about 2 hours each.  It could be done quicker but I cut each strip one at a time instead of layering and I was watching movies while I did it.

I altered the pattern a bit.  It called for 5 of the larger strips and 4 of the smaller.  This was too large for camping. It also started with the smaller strips on the outside and I changed it to the larger.  This left me with a size I liked.   The pattern also called for the strips to be longer than I made them.  I went with the measurement of the shortest material I had - which ended up being 19 inches and I am happy I did.  Somebody must have some huge counter space to work with to use the original dimensions.  

Easy project with clear instructions. The possibilities are endless on your fabric choices. I beginner sewer could do this.  The hardest thing is the hand sewing from where you pull it all to the right side after stitching.  I just did a temp stitch and when I top-stitched over the whole thing I pulled my hand stitches out.

So what have you done from Pinterest lately?