Crafts to Make Using Dish Cloths

Crafts made with dish cloths are fast and simple, with no sewing required. Use rubber bands and cording to shape the dish cloths into doll clothes or figurines. Embellish your dish cloth crafts with bits of ribbon, buttons and flat-backed rhinestones to give your creations character.

Many dish cloths have an open weave construction that you can use to your advantage when making doll clothes. Thin ribbons or any type of cording may be woven through the open weave along the edges of the cloth to create a belted waist or secure seams without sewing.

To make a pair of dish cloth doll pants, you’ll need two open-weave dish cloths and two pairs of shoelaces. Shoelaces are easier to thread because they have plastic tips on each end. Fold each dish cloth in half, lengthwise, and lay them side by side with the folds to the outside.

Create a drawstring waistband by weaving one of the shoelaces in and out across the top of the cloths. When you pull the cord taut, the waist will appear. The lower you tie the cord along the top, the more your waistband will appear gathered.

Construct the center seam of the pants the same way, but only join the two dish cloths together about a third of the way down the inside. The two pants legs should be apparent now, join them with gathered cord across the bottom to make ruffled pants legs.

If you’ve ever made a fan by folding paper back and forth, you can make a dish cloth angel. You’ll need four rubber bands, one dish cloth and some thin ribbon.

Fan fold the dish towel and iron the folds in place to give the angel dimension.

To make the angel’s head, fold the pressed dish cloth in half, lengthwise, and secure a rubber band at the folded end. Make wings the same way, one on each side of the dish cloth. You can make the wings slightly larger than the head, or keep them the same size.

Another rubber band will make the angel’s waist and pull the two loose sides of the dish cloth together. Cover the rubber bands with ribbon to finish the angel.