Hi,
I’m trying to get my kids swimming towels to stay on better by putting in snaps and armholes. I outlined rectangular holes with a piece of cellophane tape, stay-stitched the edge, and cut out the hole. First I tried binding the edge with my machines overcast stitch, but that looked terrible. Then applied Wright’s extra-wide double fold bias binding tape to the edge. It was a disaster. One side looked great, but on the other side, the corners were was drowning in bunched-up bias binding tape at the corners and there was a good 3/8 inch of excess tape between my stitching line and the edge of the tape.
Can anyone suggest a better way to do this? The towel is very thick, and the armholes need to look good on both sides.
Replies
I would use knit ribbing for the armholes. It is used for t shirt necklines and cuffs. It works well for bibs made by folding a terry cloth dish towel in half lengthwise, cutting a curved neckline and inserting ribbing to fit over the child's head. They make wonderful gifts.
For swim towels you might try the same technique as the bibs. Cutting the neckline rather than the armholes and inserting the ribbing. They would look like ponchos and you could leave the side seams open or close with velcro or ribbon ties.
Hope this helps, Mary
You can also use knit fabric cut from the bottom of tshirts to make your binding. It's thin, stretchy and flexible, and you can probably find just the color you need. Cut two strips across the bottom of the shirt about 1.5 inches deep, and then cut one side so that you have a long piece that will go around an armhole (1.5" by about 35" for most tshirts).
Fold it in half, right side out, and iron it. Line up the raw edges of the binding with the raw edge of the armhole. Stitch about 1/4-3/8" from raw edges, then turn the binding to the inside and press before topstitching (like a facing).
If you'd like the binding to show on the outside, line up the raw edges of the binding to the inside of the armhole, stitch, and press to the outside before topstitching on the outside. The fold of the binding will be its outer edge, so it will be neat, and the binding itself covers all the raggedy edges of the toweling.
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