Ditch Boring Kitchen Towels For A Versatile Handmade Solution

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There are two types of people: those who sling a kitchen towel over their shoulder while cooking à la Antoni Porowski, and those who forget where it is the second they set it down. If you're the second, you know the story well: Dinner might get on the table, but somehow, you've managed to use every dish towel in the drawer. If you're ready to keep towels off the kitchen counter and right at hand, consider this your sign to DIY a dish towel boa.

In a YouTube video, Sherrill from The Sewing Room Channel creates this clever DIY by cutting a regular dish towel in half, folding, and then stitching each half to the end of a long piece of 42-inch-wide cotton fabric (Sherrill advises getting ⅓ yard of the material). In addition to the fabric and dish towel, you'll need a sewing machine and some thread. Cotton or polyester thread are both great choices for this DIY — cotton can handle the heat of the kitchen while polyester can take a little more wear and tear — but use what you have on hand.

Since you'll be using your towel boa in the kitchen, it's key to get fabric that can tolerate being washed. Most hardier fabrics from the fabric store — think cotton and linen — can be laundered safely. Another consideration is the towel itself. They don't have to be new, per se — you can breathe new life into your well-loved dish rags instead. But if your kitchen towels have a tendency to get dirty fast, skip the white towels and go for a darker option, like Homaxy Microfiber Waffle Weave Kitchen Towels in dark gray. If you want your boa to be the same size as Sherrill's, you'll also need to use a towel that is 16-by-28 inches.

Creating this clever, crafty upgrade that prevents your kitchen towel from falling on the floor takes a few steps, but it's fairly beginner-friendly. Start by prepping your fabric and towels by running them through the wash and pressing out the wrinkles. Next, spread the towel flat. Fold the short edges together, mark the center, and cut it in half. Fold one of the halves into thirds, ensuring that the fabric's edges are perfectly lined up. Set your machine to a basting stitch (usually the longest stitch possible), and baste into place. Repeat this step with the towel's other half.

To find out how much fabric you need, measure the width of each towel, double it, and add 1 inch. Then hang a tape measure around your neck, note where you would like the towels to be, and trim the fabric to the right length. To construct the boa, fold the fabric in half lengthwise and mark the middle. Center the towel in the middle of the fabric and pin into place, then repeat on the other side. Fold the remaining fabric over the towel piece and pin it together to create the seam down the entire boa. Find the middle of the boa and measure 4 inches out on each side. Mark each spot with a pin. Stitch the main seam into place, skipping that 8-inch-long marked middle section, then press it open. Sew a ½-inch seam along each towel edge, then turn the boa inside out through that gap in the middle. Stitch the gap shut and head to the kitchen to use your new towel DIY.