Turning a Treasured Towel into a Functional Tote

I carry my belongings around in a kitchen towel. No wait, let me explain! A little while ago, I came across the “Stripes and Blocks Kitchen Towels” in Handwoven September/October 2014. The clean, crisp stripes and grid of squares really appealed to me. I enlisted the help of my instructor Natalie (at the Chicago School of Weaving) in adjusting the pattern, written for a 20" rigid-heddle loom, to a design that could be woven on my 16” loom.

Adam wove his own version of the Stripes and Blocks Kitchen Towels shown here and designed by Susan E. Horton. Photo by Joe Coca

With the project warped, I fell into a comfortable weaving stride with the back and forth of the weft, adding the blocks of inlay, and the color pattern shifts. Even with my beginner weaving skills, the process was simple enough to build up a nice rhythm while also requiring my concentration to keep it on track.

When I finally inlaid the last square and freed the project from the loom, I was delighted with the results. I hemmed the towel and wet-finished it with a gentle wash and dry. I hung it on the towel bar in my kitchen and stood back to admire my accomplishment. But after about three minutes and seventeen seconds, my joy turned to worry: I had spent so many hours weaving this beautiful towel—how could I let it get stained and worn with the inevitable cleanup from marinara sauce and blueberry smoothies?

I can hear all you experienced weavers chuckling at me, but as a beginning weaver, I couldn’t see my simple kitchen towel as anything but precious. I spirited it away to the safety of my studio, where it stayed for the better part of a year. Sometimes it laid on my loom as a cover, and sometimes it was pinned to my bulletin board like a wall hanging.

Making A New Plan

But deep down inside, I knew I wanted the towel to be something other than décor, to have a functional purpose. In the end, I decided to turn it into a bag. I reasoned that if I used commercially woven fabric for the parts of the bag that get the most wear and tear, my handweaving would be safe. My towel would become something less precious and more functional, while remaining beautiful.

Because the towel‘s warp had used blue cotton, I decided to use a length of denim for my additional fabric. I turned the towel on its side, making the width of the towel serve as the height of the bag. I created the bottom of the bag with a panel of denim 3" wide and the length of the towel, and sewed it to one long side of the towel.

I used the same denim for the pocket and lining of the bag. The pocket is a simple panel the width of the bag. It‘s sewn to one side of the lining, and divided into three pockets with top-stitching. For the lining, I chose to use the lighter reverse side of the denim, expanding the palette slightly while still keeping the colors cohesive, with the added benefit of making the interior of the bag easier to see into. I boxed the corners of the bottom and added store-bought cotton webbing for the handles.

Using both sides of the denim fabric kept the lining, the bottom panel, and inner pocket in the same color family but added interest to the tote, as well as visibility on the inside.

Anyone who sews regularly will know this is a simple project to construct, but it really allows my handwoven textile to shine. I had no plans to make this project into a bag when I first started weaving it, but I’m glad this is where I ended up. I have such an appreciation for the ingenuity and creativity that’s required in designing a weaving pattern that I couldn’t bring myself to dry my hands on the finished piece.

Maybe after I have a few more weaving projects under my belt, I’ll be more relaxed about what they’re used for. But for now, I’m choosing to elevate them to bags, scarves, and pillows.

Want to weave the towels that Adam transformed into his tote? You can find the project in the September/October 2014 issue of Handwoven.

Originally published Aug. 2, 2021; updated Sep. 30, 2024.