Bald Spots

There comes a time in every towel's life when its youthful looks start to fade away, to be replaced by the sure signs of aging.

This bath towel has served me well for quite a few years, drying my hands time and time again. But after its most recent trip through the laundry, the sad truth was revealed.

It was starting to go bald.

Thankfully the fix for this is as simple as it is effective.

But it does leave me with a puzzle, as the old towel is only worn in a few specific places, and there's quite a lot of cotton terry left on it that's half way brand new. What do we do with this conundrum? Read on below to find out.

As we can clearly see here, one of the unworn sections is a little bit bigger than a hand towel.

So that suggests a pretty obvious use for it. To free it from the worn and battered carcass, we can just fold it twice over to ensure we get an even cut.

And then sever it quickly and cleanly.

Now this is a woven fabric, so it'll need the edges to be bound in order for it to stay together. The first step here is to run it through my serger.

A narrow 3-thread overlock stitch is the order of the day.

And we'll want to do all four edges, trimming away the original double-folded hem.

So at this point this is technically a usable towel. Technically.

I could just weave in the ends of the serging and call it a day, orrrrrr...

I could bling it up. I think you know which option I'll be going for.

I'm using my Singer 251 industrial for this task, because it's been a minute since I've put any miles on it, and I want to give it some love and remind myself how nice it is to use.

It also has a lot of throat space, which is nice when you're sewing on the wrong side of the needle. Why am I sewing on the wrong side, you ask?

Because this is why. Pre-folded bias binding usually comes with one side folded slightly wider than the other, and you want to sew the wider side second (as we'll see in a bit). For whatever reason, the bias binding I bought came with the spool wound backwards, so that it unwinds with the narrow side pointing the wrong way. Sigh.

Anyway, it's not a big deal, just slightly awkward.

Once we get all the way around (making sure to properly miter the corners), we can cut the binding loose from the roll with some overlap.

Then make a quick snip right where they cross, as an indication of where to join them.

Then it gets sewn together face-to-face, making sure to not twist it accidentally.

Then it's just a matter of trimming the seam allowance and sewing it down.

Now to sew down the back side, we do a little trick: we fold the binding around the edge, and then stitch in the ditch on the top side to catch it.

This tends to freak people out but it's honestly easier than you'd think. So long as the binding is folded nice and flat and consistently, it'll be there on the back right where the needle is going to go through it.

From the top side, the stitching is essentially invisible.

And from the back side, it's...

Let's just say it's passable. It's the back side for a reason. Sewing using a seam guide and/or using this technique on thinner material will generally lead to the best results. I had neither of those factors going in my favour today.

But the result still looks just fine.

How does it function, though?

Ehhh, it's honestly a few inches too big. I suppose I could cut it down a little, but I think I'll just find a different use for it.

So that takes care of the largest section of terry, but what about the rest? Down near the hem there's some good fabric left, with a decorative weave going through it.

The first step? Take a little Piplup break.

And once we're feeling suitably refreshed, chop off some bulky hem again.

And then slice up the remainder into 6 pieces, making sure to roughly center the decorative weaving.

By the way, did I mention that cutting terry cloth makes an absolutely horrific mess?

Because yeah, it makes a mess.

Anyway, these all get run through the serger again, this time set to the smallest stitch length to give a satin-style edge. For these I decided that the gold bias binding would probably overwhelm them, so we'll weave in the ends of the serging.

Which works surprisingly well to hide the end.

And now I have 6 terry washcloths.

Nice.