Bath Towel Bath Mat

Stumbled across a buzz feed blog post, “Recycled Towel Bath Mat,” detailing directions to make a recycled towel bath mat.  I was intrigued with this project  as this would be a first for me.  There was a catch, however, I did not want to use old towels.  Why?  Because I wanted to make a house warming gift for my daughter, who is serving in the Army.  She is away from her home and family and I wanted to give her something I made with love to remind her every day of how much she is loved.  So!  This blog post gave me the perfect gift.

I used three bath towels to make this project–two gray and one canary yellow. Here you can see a close up of the braid and the finished product.

The process to create this bathmat was not complicated at all.  Here are the instructions.

1.  Trim off the hems of each bath towel.  Fold in half (width wise) to make it easier to handle.  Then using a rotary cutter, cut strips 3 inches wide. Do this for each towel
2. Taking your first strip, fold sides inward toward the center and then fold again.  This should resemble a double-faced bias tape.  Pin to keep in tack.  Remember that you need the top edge free to be used to anchor three strips together to initiate the braiding.  Repeat the folding process for the other strips.  Note:  I wanted to make sure each folded strip remain closed so I slip stitched the edges.  You need to leave about 2 inches from the bottom edge as you need to have this open to join subsequent strips together.
3. Starting at the center of the rug, twisting the braid into a coil.  Stitch the coil rings together.  Note:  a hook needle moves this part of the process along nicely.
4. Once you have completed step two for three strips, stack them on top of each other.  Stitch the top edge together, turn edge over so you have a clean sewn edge and begin braiding.  When you reach the end, stitch on another folded strip to each strand of the braid. Continue braiding and coiling.  Continue to you have all ends have been used.