Cloth Unpaper Towels

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I bought a king sized flannel pillowcase at the Goodwill store for $.99.  From the hemmed section, I made some samples of handwarmers.

http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/02/flannel-hand-warmers.html

After the hem was removed and the seams taken out, I had a nice piece of flannel to use for something else.  Flannel costs $5 or $6 a yard, so I knew I wanted to keep this for something.

Anyone who has read this blog won't be surprised to know that I watch HGTV and crafting shows.  I saw a piece recently where someone made Cloth UnPaper Towels.  They are made with fabric on one side and flannel on the other.  This person made the towels, put two snaps on each piece to snap the towels together and rolled them up on a paper towel holder.  Instead of grabbing a paper towel and throwing it away, they unsnapped a cloth towel.

These towels can be purchased already finished at Etsy stores.

I wanted to do this so I went to the dollar store and bought three microfiber towels.  They were a dollar each.  I figured the microfiber would work great to wipe off the counter and the flannel would be great for shining and drying. 

I cut each towel in half and cut out a piece of flannel the same size as half the towel.  I put right sides together and stitched around leaving a small opening, then turning the towel right side out by pulling it through the opening.  I top stitched the towel folding the opening in as I stitched.  I don't have a serger machine which would overcast and cut at the same time.  It looks like the purchased towels were made that way or just zigzagged around the two layers.  That would be really fast and easy to do.

The blue towels I used the fine textured side of the microfiber towel.

I think these will be very functional but way too ugly to display on my counter.  I found the cute red paper towel holder shown in the finished roll above.  It was only $5 at Dollar General but I didn't buy it.  I'm glad because my towels will be stored in a drawer without the snaps.  If I find some cute fabric someday and need more, I may try to make them again.  I really love how they work.

I got five towels from one king sized pillow case.