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10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels

Repurposing dish towels and using them in ways other than drying dishes or your hands is a great DIY project. Have you strolled through a kitchen or gift store and giggled and chuckled at the funny sayings on dish towels? I have (Cocktail napkins are also a laugh-starter.)and I wish I’d thought of those sayings. So many cute patterns and designs are available ~ for every holiday, for every occasion ~ that it’s hard to use a dish towel just for its usual intended purpose. If we can multi~task, shouldn’t a dish towel?  I’ve gathered 10 fun, easy projects for repurposing dish towels. And I do mean easy and in some cases they won’t cost you a penny except for the price of the dish towel.

What made me think about repurposing dish towels? Well, a dish towel, of course. A super cute dish towel from North Detail. A super cute dish towel from North Detail that I’m going to give away to one lucky person. Yep, folks, to celebrate a new month, a freebie, a giveaway, a contest. It may not be the lottery, but it’s pretty darn close. All you have to do is sign~up. Share your email to enter the contest. One lucky person who subscribes between today and March 15 (that’s 2 weeks away) will get this super sweet dish towel delivered to your home. I wish I could deliver to you in person, but you’d probably rather have the dish towel than me! I’ll announce the winner on Friday, March 17th. I’ll show you the dish towel at the end of the post.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels

Wall Art

I love all the sayings in cute fonts and graphics on dish towels today.  I’ve used a dish towel to make a piece of art twice. It’s really simple and I’ve loved the results. The one on the left I found at a flea market; it hangs in our butler’s pantry; the one on the right is the first towel that I bought from North Detail and I showed you how I made the dish towel into wall art.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

Make a Pillow

I used another Christmas~themed selection from North Detail to transform this dish towel into a pillow. They make great focal points on a sofa or chair. Here’s my tutorial on how to use a dish towel to make a pillow.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

And I love this DIY pillow made from a tea towel from The Wood Grain Cottage. Would someone tell me what is the difference between a teal towel and a dish towel?

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

Make a Quilt

I bet you’ve never thought of using dish towels to make a quilt, but someone at Free Patterns did. I love how easy piecing this one is.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

Make Aprons

These aprons are so cute I would hate to get them dirty. 10 Minutes and you are done.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

Make Napkins

Using dish towels as napkins is a popular practice in restaurants this days. Why shouldn’t we follow their lead? I’ve bought dish towels from a restaurant on vacation and brought them home. Ikea has great farmhouse looking dish towels that make great napkins.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

Make a Tote Bag

This is one of my favorite ideas. Don’t you love this dish towel? I’m going to be on the look out for a dish towel to repurpose as a tote.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

Make a Bread Basket

If you can fold, you can make this practical bread basket with a dish towel from Martha Stewart.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

Make Curtains or a Valence

Dish towels can be used for window treatments with not much area needs to be covered, such as for cafe curtains or valences from Sand and Sisal. Once again, Ikea comes to the rescue with this curtain style.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.
10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

Make Stockings

Grain sack style dish towels give that farmhouse or French style we love. What Christmas decorations ~ repurposing dish towels to make little stockings is a brilliant idea from Dreamy Whites.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

Use as Gift Wrap

Using dish towels as gift wrap is a wonderful idea, especially when the gift is one for the kitchen, such as a cookbook or kitchen utensil. Check out this ideas from

Cool Mom Picks, Joyful Scribblings and Brit and Co. 

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

I bet you can think of more uses for repurposing dish towels.

Here’s the cute towel that I’ll be giving away to one lucky person. Be sure to sign~up to receive my newsletter and be entered in the contest. There just might be a surprise inside the dish towel for you.

10 Fun, Easy Projects for Repurposing Dish Towels. What can you make with a dish towel? Pillows to curtains to gift wrap and art.

So start thinking of ways you can use a dish towel. 

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12 Comments

  1. I’m a huge fan of using dish towels as pillow covers, I swear I’ve made a gazillion of them over the past few years! And 10 minute aprons sound great! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!
    xo Kathleen Our Hopeful Home

  2. Great round-up of ideas! The tote bag and using towels as gift wrap are my faves. Visiting from Wonderful Wednesday party.

    1. Victoria, thank so much for visiting Bluesky Kitchen. I love using a dish towel as gift wrap; it’s like giving 2 presents. I have another dish towel project coming on the blog Friday. I hope you’ll drop back by.

  3. So many creative ways to repurpose a towel! I would have never guessed that those aprons were made out of towels. I love the bread basket idea too. Thanks for sharing!

    1. Amanda, I’m so glad that you liked them. I have another dish towel project that will be on the blog on Friday. I hope you’ll visit again.

  4. What a cute round-up. There are so many cute dish towels that it seems like a waste to use them for just, well, dishes. This is a great way to repurpose them into something more beautiful. I especially love the apron.

    1. Rebecca, thank you so much for your comment. Obviously, I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I bought the perfect dish towel today to make a pillow for our living room sofa. Look for a future DIY project.

  5. Cute ideas, I’ve made a tote bag from old tea towels but I love all these other ideas. Thanks.
    (we call then tea towels in England, I’ve no idea why!)

    1. Julie, thanks for visiting from across the pond. I’m got plans for some new towels that I’ve bought. My mother~in-law called them tea towels and she was from a small Texas town.