The blog has been very quiet lately. There are many reasons for this, one I haven't had anything I wanted to share, have been working, been contemplating my move to Uxbridge and finally I have used up the Internet I have available on my stick.
Anyway back to my cutlery, that this post is really about. I bought a set of 48 spoons, forks, knifes and teaspoons (enough for 12 people) about a year and a half ago. They had still to move out of the box, and inspired by Sherry and John from www.YoungHouseLove.com and their "Dude, Get On That Already" project, I found instructions for cutlery keepers made from tea towels, in my folder of things I want to try to make, and set about making them. I will share how I constructed mine, since I did not follow the instructions entirely.
You need:
Cutlery
Tea towels - I used four of the cheapest I had (from IKEA)
Needles
Ribbon - for tying the whole thing in the end
Scissors
1) Fold the tea towel having the right side facing downwards. Place your cutlery on it to measure how deep you want the pockets for them - you should aim to have about a half to a whole cm of cutlery free.
Pin both sides.
(This is the only picture I have of this step - I forgot to place some cutlery to illustrate proportions.)
2) I decided to sew both side seams first to make sure they were secure and would not move about.
Before sewing however we need to add the ribbon. This is done by measuring out two 20 cm strips, and placing them on top of each other. Then place them in the middle of the turned up piece in between the two pieces of fabric. As illustrated below.
For the sewing, sew a straight line 0.8-1cm in from the edge and add a zigzag out towards the edge. (Remember to sew back and forth at the beginning and end plus at the ribbon to secure)
3) Now place the chosen cutlery and measure out the size of the pockets for the cutlery.
(I only need to mark with two pins as I had vertical lines in the weave to navigate from, but you might need more depending on your tea towel's weave)
Once you have pinned, you want to check that the cutlery does indeed fit into the pocket you have created.
4) Proceed to mark all the pockets you need for all the cutlery. Making sure, as you move along, to check that the cutlery fit into the pockets.
5) You are now ready to sew the pockets. Sew in straight lines from the pin at the one end to the corresponding pin at the other end. Making sure to secure the threat by sewing back and forth at both ends.
6) When it is all sewed you can place the cutlery in their spots. Fold down the top part of the tea towel and the roll it and tie the ribbon.
You are now the proud owner of your own tea towel cutlery holders.
If you try your hand at this DIY I would love to see it.
