I am notoriously cheap when it comes to buying things for myself and the house. I would rather save my money and spend it on the grandkids or on a vacation for the whole family.

So when I recently needed towels and washcloths for the kitchen, rather than rush right out and buy new ones I cut up a couple of old, but still-in-good-condition towels.

Just cutting up towels doesn’t do it for me. I still wanted something that looked nice and wouldn’t unravel every time it was washed. A while ago I found a box of double-fold bias tape at a garage sale for a dollar. This box of bias tape has come in handy for numerous projects!

I bound the cut towels and washcloths with the bias tape and ta da! New washcloths and towels cheap, cheap, cheap!

Here are the instructions:

Using my sewing ruler and a rotary cutter I cut one of the towels into pieces for regular-sized kitchen towels.

I used pre-made double-fold bias tape to bind the raw edges of the towels. (You can make your own bias tape, but in this instance I was in a hurry.)

I unfolded the bias tape and lining up the edge of the towel and the bias tape I sewed along the first fold of the bias tape, mitering the corners (see below). Double fold bias tape has one side that is folded narrower than the other. That is the side that is sewn on first. I sewed the two raw end edges of the bias tape together, folded it over to the other side of the towel, and top stitched the bias tape to the towel. The large bath towel made four kitchen towels.

I cut the other towel into wash cloth-sized pieces. Using the same method as with the towels, I bound the edges with double-fold bias tape. This made eight 11×11-inch wash cloths for the kitchen. (I like to keep wash clothes by the kitchen sink. We use them for everything from napkins to mopping-up rags; it saves on paper towels which we rarely buy.)

Instructions for mitering the corners:

To miter a corner when binding something, stitch the bias tape on one side right to the edge of the product and take it out of the machine. One side of the bias tape has a narrower fold than the other. That is the side to stitch on first.

By tucking your finger under the tape, fold up the corner as shown, place the product back in the machine adjusting the bias tape as necessary, and continue stitching to the next corner. Repeat until you have stitched on all of the bias tape.

Once you have sewn the bias tape on all the way around, take the product out of the machine and fold the bias tape to the other side. Your corners should look like this.

Put the product back in the machine and top stitch the bias tape, making sure to tuck in the other side of the corner to miter it when sewing on the bias tape.

This was a simple project that didn’t take very long to do. I will watch for good towels at the thrift store and garage sales so I can make more and have some in reserve for when the current ones start wearing out.