How to Add a Pretty Crocheted Edge to a Tea Towel

Good news! I made it through my first week at my new job!  Woohoo!  They were right when they told me it was a very busy office, its VERY BUSY!!  I like busy though, it really helps the time to go by quickly and when you are working 12 hours shifts, that's most helpful!

Before I started working again I had lots of time to do crafty things.  This crocheted edge tea towel is one of those things and I thought I'd show you what I did because its pretty easy, if you know how to crochet already that is.  If not, crochet is so easy to learn.  I learned as a kid.  My sweet Mamaw taught me.

I was at Marshall's one day just browsing around when I spotted these adorable floral bunny tea towels!  I thought they would look so cute with a crocheted trim on them, so that's where this idea came from!

I'm loving yellow and purple for my Spring decor this year so this towel fit right in to that color scheme!

Here's a close up of the tag that was on it.  Maybe you can still find some for you, but if not, I'm sure there will be lots of cute ones out there to choose from!

You will need the following items:

Tea Towel
Yarn to match
Crochet Hook (I used size G)
Scissors
Needle
Thread to match

This is the cotton yarn I picked up at Michael's, the color is country yellow.  I used a size G crochet needle but you can use whatever size you like.  The needle and yarn size will make a difference in how big or small your finished crochet work will be.  You can find the yellow yarn as well as lots of other colors, on the Michael's web site for $1.99 right here.

Now, I didn't snap pictures of me as I crocheted.  That's extremely hard to do alone, but I have two links below where you can see step by step how to create the shell stitch that I made here as well as others.

HOW TO CROCHET SHELL STITCH
HOW TO CROCHET PRETTY EDGING

Here's what I did:

1. Make the chain which is the base of your shell trim.  I chained 71 times.  That's the length I needed to fit my towel which is 19" wide.
2. Make a single crochet stitch into the second chain stitch from your hook.
3. Skip the next two chain stitches, then make a double crochet stitch into the next chain stitch after that. Make four more double crochet stitches into the same chain stitch, for a total of five double crochet stitches in all.
4. Skip the next two chain stitches. Now make a single crochet stitch into the next chain stitch after the empty chains. Now you have your first crochet shell!
5. Repeat the following to finish your trim:
*Skip two chains
*Make five double crochets in the next chain stitch.
*Skip two chains
*Single crochet in the next chain
6. Repeat step 5 until the end of the row, ending with a single crochet in the final stitch. Tie it off.   Now you can attach your finished trim to your tea towel by hand sewing it on using a whip stitch like you see me using in the picture above.

You'll notice that you can't see my hand stitching on the front side.  I made sure that I just grabbed the bottom layer of the towel when I was stitching.

I only added the trim to one end.  You can certainly add it to both ends, but I chose not to.  One thing I will remind you of is, if your towel has a "right side up" design on it, make sure you add your trim to the correct end of your towel or like me, you may have your bunnies hanging upside down! I made this mistake and had to take the trim back off and reattach it the correct way. :)

If you love these yellow tulips, you can find them right here in my Amazon shop.  There are lots of colors and are at an excellent price! $16 for 30 tulips!

If you loved this idea and want to save it for later, be sure to pin it to your favorite Pinterest board.  I have a Pinterest board all set up called Kitchen Goodness that has lots of fun stuff and I'm pinning something new every day. Won't you join me?

GREAT NEWS!  I now have an Amazon Storefront!  If you ever want to purchase anything I'm showing you here, you can pop over to my shop and see what I've picked out for you! Click right here to visit.

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

These lovely and FUN parties!
Between Naps on the Porch
The Dedicated House  - (I was featured)
The Self Sufficient Home Acre