Towel Dress!

I've been wanting a "wearable" towel for quite a while--mainly for taking showers after I workout at the YMCA.  There's not a great way to get to the showers/locker room area carrying everything you need while trying to clutch a towel around yourself.  So, I came upon this little project and thought I'd give it a try, and I'm SO glad I did!  It was so easy that I finished it in about an hour total time.

I bought a regular beach towel from Target and got some elastic thread from Hancock Fabric.  I found instructions online on how to "shirr" fabric, and got started!  You have to wind the elastic thread on the bobbin by hand so that it isn't pulled tight AT ALL.  This takes quite a while and you have to keep re-loading the bobbin after each 5 rows or so.

You simply sew straight stitches making sure to backstitch at the beginning and end of each row.  This helps it gather tightly.  The first few rows aren't very gathered, but the more you sew, the more it starts having that nice shirred look.

I made 24 rows total.  Here is the completed shirred area:

After sewing, you iron with steam and the area REALLY gathers up even nicer.  I don't know if you can tell from the picture or not, but it gathered up about 4 extra inches after ironing it.

Then, you simply sew right sides together and press the seam open:

Completed dress!  I am going to add some straps to this because it is on the large side (I was too lazy to take the time to figure out the best measurements and hem the towel down to begin with--I'm was simply going for something that would basically fit ok, but if I was to do this again, I would sew the towel a few inches smaller first.)

And, yes, I decided to pose with the dress on--as much as this pains me for my skin is so pale and I look like I'm really lacking on sleep today.  But I wanted to show how nicely it works!  I'll especially like it better once I get some straps sewn on so that it will stay up a little better.

This was a nice little afternoon project!