Wattle and Slate Wipes Tutorial

A common question on our VIP page is how to make fabric wipes from scraps. These kind of wipes can be used for face wipes, make up removers, cloth wipes for bottoms, family cloth, unpaper towels, and all round cleaning cloths.

They are also an excellent upcycle for any fabric scraps or old towels, in particular baby towels that all too quickly become too small for use.

If you aren't planning on upcycling towels, I have often found cheap towels in the bargain bins at  the supermarket, or you can order toweling fabric by the metre from etsy, I have used Ainsberry Fabric and Alchemy & Fabric.

These wipes only take 10mins to make but last for years.

 

To get started gather your supplies; I have used Cotton Lycra, Canvas, Woven, French Terry and Bamboo Lycra scraps on mine with a toweling back. A co-ordinating or contrasting thread on a standard sewing machine. You can make these any size, so you want a pretty topper and then your toweling in the exact same size. This one is 20cm X 14cm, but I generally prefer square at 18x18cm.

We start by turning the fabric to face right side to right side, so you can't see your pattern.

We are then going to stitch all the way around the edges leaving roughly a 4cm gap we can use later (thanks to Tabbi for helping)

From here snip off the corners taking care not to catch the stitching, this will make the corners neater.

We are then going to use the small gap to turn the fabric inside out so we can see the print.

Once we have turned it inside out, poke all the corners out with a chopstick and then carefully fold the 'open area' inside the wipe to mimic a seam. This is the perfect time to press your wipe to get a cleaner finish.

We then topstitch the whole wipe around starting with the open section about 3/8 of an inch or just under a cm. 

Backstitch at the end of your sewing to lock the end of the stitch.

These get neater with practice, and are also a fabulous project for younger sewists to make presents for friends and family. I love the idea of saving scraps to use for these, especially of favourite prints, really any size goes!! 

Happy Sewing, Jem x

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