Petits Four Towels Tutorial

While at Market I was lucky enough to get a couple free Moda Petits Fours.  You know...those little 2 1/2" square bundles.  The Moda Designers were handing them out in their booths and I was lucky enough to acquire a couple. 

So yesterday I'm sitting there admiring how darn cute these little petit fours are and trying to decide what to do with them when I had a lightbulb moment.  Use them to decorate kitchen towels!  And here is the result of my efforts.

Aren't they cute?!  The fabric is Pat Sloan's new line called

Eat Your Fruits n' Veggies which I thought was perfect for kitchen towels. 

And wouldn't they make great gifts to give someone?

The moment they were finished I knew this would be a great quick and easy project that others might like to do.  Did I take pictures of my progress as I went along to share with you?  NOPE...what a ding dong.

But I did on the second little bundle.  So here my little tutorial on how to make these cute little towels.

PETITS FOUR TOWELS

For this project you'll need the following:

• Two plain kitchen towels...I purchased inexpensive ones from WalMart
• One Petits Four...this time I'm using Chateau Rouge by French General
• One pkg of Rick Rack...medium or jumbo preferable
• Thread for quilting and thread to match rick rack and towel colors
• Roxanne's Glue Baste-It
• Dritz Fray Check

To begin start by measuring your towel's width to know how many squares across your'e going to need.  My towel is 15 1/2" so I'll be using eight across.  You'll want to the sewn squares be wider than your towel after they are sewn together.

Here are a couple of possible layouts...squared and offset.  Sew the squares together as desired and press.

(Shhhh...let's pretend you see eight across, not seven) 

Next measure 1 1/2" up from the bottom of the towel and lay your sewn piece down on top of the towel centering it so that you have an equal amount laying over the edge of each side.  Trim the excess on each side leaving 3/8" for turning under.



Next, turn your side edges under and press.  Don't know turn under the top and bottom of your sewn piece. 

NOTE: If you're using a towel that has any polyester in it like mine, don't forget to turn down your iron or you'll melt your towel. Ask me how I know?

Before you begin quilting your towel, change your top thread to the thread you selected for your quilting.  For this project I selected tan.  Now for your bobbin.  Your bobbin thread should match the color of your towel because you don't want your stitches showing up on the back of your towel.

 To quilt your towels start by sewing a 1/4" from the edge of the sew piece for the top/bottom and 1/8" from the edge for the side.  Be sure to pin or glue baste your sewn piece to the towel sew it doesn't move on your while you're sewing.

Once you've secured those edges you can quilt as desired. For my towel I did a simple diamond pattern. 

Next, cut two lengths of rick rack slightly wider than your towel.  With Glue Baste-It, attach your rick rack to the edge of  the top and bottom of you sewn piece. 

Make sure the raw edge of your sewn piece is completely covered.  The bottom inside curve of your rick rick should just come to the edge of the sew piece and the ends of your rick rack should be hanging over the edges of your towel.


Now put Fray Check on your rick rack where it meets the edges of the towel.  Once the Fray Check is dry you can trim off the excess.

Next, change your top thread to match your rick rack and then sew it down to the towel with a straight stitch.  Because this towel is to be washed and I don't want the rick rack curling up, I sewed it down following the curves.

And just like that you're done!

I hope you enjoy making these towels as much as I did.

Till next time...

P.S.  I know what everyone is getting for Christmas this year...LOL.