For as long as I can remember I’ve had a thing for old linens. When I was at my Grandmas I lived for the opportunity to go through her linen press and her button tins. I was such an odd child that way! Whenever I’m in an op shop, I have to look at the doilies and tea towels and linens. My absolute weakness is travel scarves and tea towels. There is such a 50’s post war, heading off to holiday joy about them that seems to ring through my fingers as I touch. These linens are so tactile and pretty. If you had asked me years ago, if they should be chopped and repurposed, I would have died a little. But these things are becoming less and less seen in op shops. I would hate to see them become invisible, forgotten or land fill. So I can either stretch my creative mess to full on hoarder levels or turn them into something really useful. And I think my Gran would be happy to see these everyday beauties become relevant and useful again.
So now I’m always looking for ways to repurpose these lovely pieces of the past. I made some bunting with embroidered linens and doilies ages ago. But I never quite figured out what to do with the tea towels…until now! While researching tote ideas, I saw some vintage tea towel totes and I finally knew what my tea towels were destined to be! I’ve been a bit tote obsessed lately because they’re so darn handy! Free plastic bags have been banned for years here, so it’s bring your own or pay. So totes are much needed and if you shop at farmers markets like I do they are a necessity! From market, to supermarket shopping, to project bag, to standing in for handbag – totes are awesome! I made an Iced Vovo tote recently and I use it all the time. It’s so cute and quirky and like these, I always get compliments!
My grandmother used the unfortunate saying, ‘There is more than one way to skin a cat’ and that is true for this project. When researching this idea, most of the versions I saw didn’t have lining. Which is completely fine and means you can take advantage of the tea towels pre finished edges. If you prefer a more finished tote or want your tote to be really nice and strong, you can add a lining. I elected to line one of mine and kept the other two single layer. I also added simple patch pockets to all of mine. Two made from doilies I found in the op shop and one to match the lining. I wanted to show you a few ways of making these, unlined and simple, unlined with exterior boxed corners and a full lined, interior boxed corner version. That way you can mix and match what suits you and the tea towels you have. If you wanted to keep things super simple, omit the lining and pocket and use twill tape to make the handles. Then you are done in about 5 mins! Whichever way you go, these are a very quick and easy projects!
My three choices for this project demanded different treatments. If I had boxed the purple tea towel, I would have lost the girls feet! This tea towel was clearly a housewarming, the puppy at the end of the barrow holds a sign that says ‘Change of Address’. The beige ‘Birds of Australia’ was a calendar for 1980 and as such ran long. It could be exterior boxed and form a cute shape. The blue ‘P&O Cruise line’ was huge and was so busy I thought an internal box corner and lining was right.
As you can see, two of my tea towels (the purple & the blue) have a print that runs horizontally or landscape, which means the print will be the right way up on both the front and the back of the tote. The print on the calendar tote runs vertically or portrait, so unless you cut in half and add a bottom seam, the print will be upside down on the back. Just something to think about when choosing tea towels. Size is the other factor, some tea towels are quite small but you could always use two or even use place mats!
You will need to pick a fabric for any lining or straps. I think a medium weight cotton is fine, I played with some options. I always cut my straps 7.5cm or 3”wide and the full width of my fabric, mostly because my sewing ruler is 3″ wide and it the path of least resistance! You can adjust the strap length to suit later. It can be hard to pick a thread colour when working with multi coloured fabrics. If you were making one or two, you might want to try and get a closer thread match. But I was making all three, in all kinds of colours. In that situation, I choose a beigey, greigey colour. It melds into most things. I almost always use this colour thread for multi-colour situations and I wasn’t too concerned about visible stitches anyway. No one notices those little details! And I will say that these linens are very rarely perfectly ‘square’ or neat in that way. Linen is a rather stretchy woven and if they have been used before, things might not line up perfectly. If that is the case for you, pin the top and bottom edges and distribute the slack evenly between your pins. Put the longer side down on the feed dogs when you sew. Hold taught-ish between pins. You’ll be surprised at how it all fits in the end!
I laid out the tea towel right side down and decided where to place the pocket. I like mine fairly low down, I find if the pocket is too high, items tend to fall out. I was using a little embroidered linen/doily for the pocket of this one. I don’t have a pic of how I laid it out but the first pic (from a few steps later) shows the placement. I pinned mine on and stitched around the edges with a regular straight stitch. I was careful to backstitch a few times at the beginning and end, as pockets can get tugged. The little embroidered linen wasn’t square, so I just picked spot to start and followed the shape till I reached the same (approximate) spot on the other side. Since my embroidery was long, I put in an extra line of stitches to divide it into two pockets. In the last pic, you can see that my stitches barely show on the wrong side.
To make my strap, I took a 7.5cm or 3” long strip of fabric and folded it right sides together and stitched a seam. You can use whatever seam allowance pleases, I was doing the edge of my pressor foot, which is a ½ or ¼ inch depending on my stitch setting. If there was more than ¼ seam allowance, I trimmed it down to that. I used my handy tube turner to turn things right side out but a safety pin is still an awesome option. The tube turner is shown bottom left (the metal dealie, not the casual cat tail) and you should be able to find them in most sewing stores. Once everything is right side out, give it a press with the seam in the middle. Fold the length in half and snip and you have two handles. If you want them shorter, now is your chance!
It’s going to sound counter intuitive but pin your handles with the good (no seam) side facing up, so wrong side of strap facing the wrong side of the tea towel. Placement it is up to you. I just figure a good thing for one half or side and match it up on the other. You want things to be even on both sides but keep in mind where you will be sewing the bag closed, it will have some seam allowance.
Once you are pinned up, sew a little row of stitches about a ½ inch or so from the top edge of the tea towel. Do this for all strap pieces. Now fold the strap up and away from the body of the tea towel and sew them down again. This time as close to the edge as you are comfy with and be sure to back stitch at beginning and end! This makes for a nice, strong strap that has no raw edges. It’s actually a nice way to finish straps on tank tops or lingerie too.
Last steps to finish this one! Fold the tea towel in half, right sides together and pin along the open side and bottom edges (where the green lines are). Whizz your stitch around at your comfortable seam allowance (I was using ¼ inch) and be sure to back stitch. You are done!!! Tote one achieved!
Now we are going to work on the externally boxed Calendar Birds. This is an extremely long tea towel, as most calendar ones are. So it is suited to this method. I folded the tea towel in half, right sides facing and pressed. Then I pushed up the insides, about 2 ish inches, until it looked like my picture. I just went with what looked right and I matched it on the other side. I gave it a real strong press with the iron, until those creases were well set.
Then I knew how big the tote would be, so I positioned and sewed in a pocket, just as before. This doily was big so folded over the top edge and sewed it down, before attaching it as a pocket. I made the straps and attached them just as before too.
Okay so those slightly awkward folds need to be put back together again (if they got unfolded while sewing) because we are sewing this baby up! Pin along both sides, being careful to pin your folds neatly. Sew down both sides (blue lines) with your comfortable seam allowance (I was using ¼ inch) and be sure to back stitch at beginning and end. Just to be clear, you are sewing over the folds, which creates the boxed effect. Turn right side out and tote number two is done in minutes flat!
Now on to the travel tote! Toot toot! We are going to line this, so you’ll need to cut a piece of lining fabric that is the same size as your tea towel. For the pocket, I just grabbed a scrap that was twice the size of my intended pocket but a bit bigger coz seam allowance. I knew I would divide the pocket so I chose where to sew on my label and did that. Then I folded the pocket fabric in half, sewed around it but left a gap in the bottom, so I could turn things right side out. Turned it right side out and pressed. Pocket! I stitched it on the same way as I did for all the others but to the lining instead of the tea towel it self.
Now we are going to fold the tea towel in half, just like the purple tote and we are going to sew down the side and along the bottom. We will do exactly the same for the lining BUT we are going to leave a hand sized gap in the bottom of the lining because we need a way to turn it all right sides out later.
Now we need to box the corners. It’s pretty easy but its one of those things that seems wrong. Sewing is full of those! We are going to go this 4 times, one for each bottom corner. Twice for lining and twice for the tea towel. Take the bottom seam of the bag and align it with the side seam. It will make a little triangle. Measure down the seam about 4cm or 1 ½ inches and square off a line. You can mark it any way you like. Now go sew on that line. Repeat on the other corner but align with the side fold, as there is no side seam. Repeat on lining corners. I didn’t want to trim my tea towel, so I didn’t but I did trim my lining to reduce bulk.
We are so close to done! Put your (right ride out) tea towel, inside your lining (right side in) lining. Pin your handles (you know how to space them, we have done this before). So that the right side of the handles is to the right side of the tea towel, in between the layers. Pin the lining and outer together, being mindful of the handles. Sew down around the top opening with your comfortable seam allowance (I was using ¼ inch) and be sure to back stitch at beginning and end.
Pull the tote free, via the gap in the lining. Fold the edges of the gap in, pressing if desired and topstitch closed. Put the lining back into the bag and press the upper edge to make things crisp. You can topstitch around the upper edge, if desired, I didn’t bother! Three totes done and dusted!
When I set about this project, there was some scepticism amongst the ask family. They know my vintage linen love and thought that this might be, just a little, crazy! But the second I was done, people were putting in dibs for the one they wanted and heralding my genius. Which only proves how old can be new again! Mr Ask thought I was still crazy but pointed out that the blue, lined tote featured the ship Arcadia. Arcadia was the ship his father travelled on when he emigrated from Denmark to Australia. What a lovely serendipity! In the spirit of all of that, these are all destined for new homes among my family and I will have to collect a few more tea towels for myself. I know when my grandma went in to care and eventually passed away, I saved a few sentimental linens. I think this could be a perfect way to take these tossable items and turn them into a useable piece of memorabilia. Forging into a greener, more sustainable, less plastic baggy place by reusing long lost linens. To me, it’s a perfect way to be! If you give these bags a go, I’d love to see your pics xxxx
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