The domestic goddess needle roll or more than one use for a tea towel

There's something about a new tea towel - the crispness of the fabric and the interesting colours and prints. It is a strange thing that we put so much design effort into something for wiping plates.

In fact my Gran used them for décor as well. Every new year a bright calendar tea towel went into the plastic poster hanger on the wall and the old one entered drying rotation. And as a drama school student years ago I had a tea towel print of Shakespeare’s First Folio on my bedsit wall because I couldn’t find it on a conventional poster.

The designs often catch my eye and I found myself wondering if they could put to other uses. Then I saw one particular design while I was casting about for the perfect project for a handmade gift for a particular individual - and suddenly inspiration struck. 

Fold a tea towel into thirds length ways and you can see it becomes just the tings for storing double pointed knitting needles - well it certainly looked like that to me.

So I embarked on a test project for myself with two tea towels (spotty for the lining), some interfacting and bias binding.

 

It’s a simple design, creating an envelope and flap and then stitching divisions into the pocket.

 

With my own test roll, I found a tea cup button, to secure a ribbon tie. 

All that was left to do was to organise my DPNs - good news for my partner who is now less at risk of a dnagerous encounterwith a stray pointy stick.

It worked so then I could make the gift,. the “Tunnocks Teacake special” – a design chosen because the friend is a fan of the snack.

This one is lined with some toning fabric rather than another tea towel but the same principle applies.

I was so pleased with the result I was tempted to keep both but in the end I delivered the gift to a happy reaction.

 

Isn’t it great when a plan comes together?