How to Make Linen Grain Sack Dish Towels

Im slowly getting all the sewing projects that were on my to do list accomplished. Making dish towels from this striped linen I’ve had hanging around was the project I tackled this week.

If you’re interested in the fabric you can find it here. I had 5 yards on hand and after washing and drying it I ended up with 5 towels. Make sure you do this step, linen shrinks drastically and you may end up with an undesired size if you cut the fabric before washing.

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This linen in the prefect width for dishtowels. One of my favorite things about it is you wont have to hem the side seem. After washing and drying I cut each dishtowel at 28 inches. You can hem the top and bottom seam if you want, you an also do a straight stitch about 1/2” from the top and bottom and let the linen have a frayed edge look, which is the route I took.

I was looking for more of a rustic look so I went with the frayed edge. If you’ve never used linen before you are missing out. I got hooked on it several years ago. I have everything from clothes, bedding, and towels made from it. Once you discover good linen, you will want it. A lot of it needs to come from Europe to get a good quality. 

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This particular linen is a work horse linen, its definitely made to withstand years of use. The more you wash it the better it gets. Linen also dries fast so it’s a good choice for towels. 

The project took less than 30 minutes to do, so I now ask myself why I procrastinated so long to get it done. I advice you wash it right away so that its ready when you are. That was one of my problems; every time I decided I wanted to make them the fabric was sitting in my stash unwashed and dried. 

While I was at it I washed a a couple of yard of flannel I have for another project. As long as the sewing machine is out I may as well get that project done too. My thoughts are to make reusable paper towels for the kitchen, but it may get used for something else. You’ll have to come back and see what I come up with.