PEGGY'S TOWEL HOLDER

This is the story of Peggy's Towel Holder, a/k/a The Towel on the Oven Handle.  It is listed in my Etsy shop.  Take a look.  The link should be off to the right.

Once upon a time there was a lady who became very aggravated with her kitchen towels falling off of the oven handle.  She tried sewing the towel to fabric for a cute little towel topper.  That didn't work.  Frequently she needed to pull that towel off of the oven handle and use it to wipe up spills or whatever.  She then tried patterns for towel toppers with buttons or snaps.  Those still didn't work for the same reason.  She decided to create her own towel topper with a band of fabric to slip the towel on and off.  That was better but still didn't function as she would have liked.  Years went by and every once in awhile she would try to create in her head something that would work.  One day she thought of a new design.  Actually creating the design went on the back burner for a few months because there was always something else that needed to be done.

As it happened, one of her friends was having a birthday and the lady needed to obtain a birthday gift for the following week.  Her birthday friend was a volunteer for a cat rescue organization and loves cats.  Our lady went to Amazon, of course, to shop for the perfect gift.  And she found it.  A beautiful chrome wine stopper in the shape of a cat.  She bought it immediately.  There has never been such a perfect gift.  Unfortunately, she was informed that the gift would not arrive until Friday.  The party was on Wednesday.  Being somewhat creative she decided to make a little something for her friend to give on Wednesday but letting her know that the real gift would arrive on Friday.  But what little thing could she make?  Now was the perfect time to create the towel holder!

She located some cute animal fabric scraps and set to work.  First she had to draw and digitize the design for her embroidery machine.  The fabric had very bold animal print and she wanted to include a particular little kitty cat design that her friend had always admired.  To make the design pop she stitched it in gold metallic thread.  She used some fabric on the back and front of the towel holder, sandwiching some hooped stabilizer.  Included in the design was a cross-hatched, quasi-quilting stitching to hold the fabric in place.  The holes for the towel was about 3" wide.  Then she set up the machine, inserted the hoop with the fabric in place and made the first of these towel holders.

It turned out beautiful.  But when she went to put the little towel in the openings, she found it worked but was a little tight.

The embroidery design was adjusted for a wider opening for the towel but, to do so, she had to enlarge the entire design.  Once that was done, she tried again and stitched out the towel holder.

That worked great!  The lady was elated and put it on her stove handle, inserted a towel, and admired her work.  Well, until she went to pull the towel out to wipe up a spill.  You guessed it, the process worked except once the towel is pulled out, there is nothing holding the towel holder onto the oven handle.  Thinking about a closure, she could put a button there to keep the towel holder on the handle but was there something more sturdy that she could use?  Metal snaps!  Yes!  And so she put a metal snap, in the center, right above the towel opening. "Ah, this should be perfect," she exclaimed. 

 

Well, not exactly.  Now that she took up the space for the snap, the towel holder didn't fit around the oven handle.  It worked beautifully on other things like a belt, dowel, or curtain rod.  Back to the design.  She didn't need to widen the design.  She lengthened the design.  Perfecto!  She used up all of her pretty animal print fabric and had grabbed some scrap white fabric.

She put a towel in the opening and went through the process of standing at the stove and wiping her hands on the towel.  That worked well.  Pulling the towel out worked well.  The holder stayed in place.

As she looked at the white towel holder, it seemed to look a bit plain.  Then she decided there is room for a monogram.  Nothing big.  She digitized, grabbed some blue fabric scraps, and a lighter blue spool of thread, hooped the fabric, and powered up the embroidery machine.

It worked.  It's beautiful.  And hanging on her oven handle.  

Throughout this process she had posted pictures on her FaceBook page and asked what she should name this creation.  One friend said Peggy's Towel Holder.  And, so it is.

Although I'm out of the cute animal print fabric, I do have lots of fabric and choices listed in the Cajun Stitchery shop on Etsy.  Please visit.  Remember this item is handmade in the USA and I only sell in the USA.