B is for Bath

Welcome back for "B" day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

Today's project was a Christmas present for Collin's grandmother. I never quite know what to make for her, so every year is a bit of a crapshoot.

I saw a photo of a cute patchwork bathmat made from some fabric and a towel a few years back, so I decided to take a spin on that.

Today at EPJ, B is for Bath...more specifically, Bath Mat

I used:

1 full sized bath towel
1 1/4 yard patterned cotton fabric
~ 1/4 yard solid black cotton
Fusible interfacing

The towel allows for absorption of moisture and the whole thing is easily washable.

How I Did It:

I started out by washing all of my fabrics to remove any shrinkage...always a super important step. With that done, I ironed the towel and the cotton fabric, and ironed my black cotton to some sturdy fusible interfacing. I measured my bath towel and cut the cotton fabric to match.

Setting all of my fabric aside, I hopped on the computer, selected a font, and typed out the word "bath". I cut that out on cardstock using my Pazzle. You could just as easily print it out and then cut your lettering by hand. Well...maybe not as easily, but you could still do it that way.

I laid my letters face side down onto the back of the black cotton. I traced the outline of my reverse letters onto the interfacing and then cut my fabric lettering out. Make sure you pay attention to the alignment of your letters when you're doing this step. You want the interfacing to have a mirror image drawn on it so that your cut out wording will be fabric side up.

I lined up the wording on my polka dot fabric, completed a quick press to adhere it, and stitched around the edges with a zigzag stitch to make sure my letters weren't going to go anywhere. Never trust the interfacing, it will deceive you.

After that, it's just like assembling a basic blanket. I pinned the right sides of the towel and the patterned fabric together and sewed 3/4 of the way around the edge. A quick inside out flip and press later, I folded in my non-sewn edge, and top stitched all the way around the mat. A couple of quilting tack downs probably wouldn't have been a bad idea, but I didn't think about that one until it was wrapped and well on it's way to it's Christmas destination. Next time...

Just that easy. All ready to add a little something special to a bathroom floor. I really just like the polka dot fabric. Of course, it's not hard to see that I have a bit of a thing for polka dots if you peek at the blog's background (especially if you know what the old one looked like).

The A to Z extravaganza continues tomorrow with... C!