Not long ago I contributed these Shabby Chic Ruffle Towels on Craft Snob’s Bite Sized Sewing Series. Today I am excited to share that sewing tutorial with you. It goes with the Shabby Chic Flower tutorial that I shared a while back.
I love sewing, and I love quick crafts, so when I was got the opportunity to contribute to this fun series I jumped on it! My husband is a medical resident, so our little family is living with my father in his big, empty house (he is a widower) during my husband’s training in order to save money and start paying back those crazy student loans of his. This year my dad and I decided to redecorate and remodel much of the house. Everything was untouched from my mama’s early 1990s peach and blue decor, and it was really time for an update. For most of the house he has made me stay plain, simple, and more masculine, but in the main floor powder room he said I could go a little nuts. And so I went as feminine as I thought he could actually stand. Pretty gray cabinets, with curly aged silver knobs from Anthro, a fun, wavy silver mirror, and a lovely blue on the walls aside from an accent wall that is a subtle white wallpaper with tiny silver flecks on it. I am making a fun wreath covered in shabby chic flowers for the accent wall to bring in the blue and some other color, but I decided that wasn’t enough: I needed some hand towels with pizazz. And thus these towels were born.
Are you scared of ruffles? Don’t be! They are so easy! I whipped out these towels in a hurry. Yes, I have sewn a LOT of ruffles in my day, but I am no extraordinary seamstress by any means, so I know that you can do it too! Let me walk you through the steps.
Start by cutting off part of your hand towel. I got this cute one at Target and cut off 4 inches from the bottom. I actually wish I had cut off 1/2 inch to an inch more.
Cut the ruffles for your towel. I chose two fabrics and used one ruffled from one fabric and two ruffles from the other fabric. My towel is 16 inches wide, so I cut my ruffles 22 inches long and 3 inches wide. I like to do about a 1.5 ratio on the length of my ruffles unless I want BIG ruffles on something like a dress for my daughter, in which case I would double the length of the original item.
Iron THREE of the sides of your ruffle with a small hem, about 1/4 inch wide. I wanted to keep my top open so it would fray a bit and look “shabby chic.”
Sew down your three sides on each ruffle.
Now baste along the top edge of each ruffle. Basting is sewing with a very long stitch. DO NOT backstitch on either end of this. You need the thread loose so that you can do the next step.
Use your hands to create the ruffle now. Hold onto one of the strings and simply push and scrunch the fabric gently until you have created a ruffle. 
Once you have gathered the ruffle spread it evenly. Pin it onto your towel using
Arrange the ruffle so that you end up pinning it onto the towel evenly spread out. Pin it very, very well.
Once the pins are places you should tie off the threads with small knots. to keep your ruffle in place.
Now carefully stitch your ruffle onto your towel. Be sure to set your sewing machine’s stitch length back to the regular amount and to backstitch at the start and finish of each ruffle, just as you always would.
Now repeat this process with the next two ruffles!
Ta-da! You are finished! Wasn’t that simple? I love how they turned out. And if you want to invest a bit more time in this project and add some extra oompf to it then you can create some Shabby Chic Flowers using my tutorial. Happy creating!
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