Upgrade the humble tea towel to a display-worthy accessory with this trio of crochet shell edging tutorials. The scalloped edging adds a vintage feel to this cotton set – either crochet it onto similar shop-bought versions, upcycle some old tea towels or make your own to fit with your kitchen décor. Ayda Algin shows you how to make this pretty crochet shell edging and we love that it's a truly sustainable craft. Use scrap fabrics and yarns to create your tea towels (what a great stash buster project) and reuse them over and over again. You could even match them to these upcycled jam jars and upcycled chair for a truly DIY kitchen!
You’ll need two pieces of fabric measuring 40 x 65cm (15¾ x 255/8 “), either matching or in contrasting patterns. With right sides together sew around the edge, leaving a gap for turning. Turn the tea towel right side out, sew the gap closed, and press. Add crochet edging in a complementary shade of yarn, and you’re ready to tackle those dishes.
If you need a little more help crocheting your shell edging then have a read and watch our crochet videos. We have a crochet for beginners guide and a crochet kits for beginners round up to help you learn all crochet's basic techniques. We also have an in-depth crochet shell stitch tutorial as well as a how to crochet blanket stitch edging so you can become a crochet edging pro.
You will need:
• DMC Natura Just Cotton yarn, 100% cotton, 50g/155m per ball, one ball each in Geranium (N52) (Yarn A), Giroflee (N52) (Yarn B), Aquamarine (N25) (Yarn C) • 2.5mm (UK 12, US C/2) crochet hook (find the best crochet hooks on the market in our round-up) • Three tea towels approx. 40cm (15¾”) wide • Tapestry needle
Tension
Tension isn’t too important, just aim for a neat finish
Abbreviations (UK)
st(s) stitch(es) sp(s) space(s) ch chain ch-sp chain space ss slip stitch dc double crochet tr treble yrh yarn round hook tr2tog treble 2 together (yrh, insert hook in next st, yrh and pull up loop, yrh and draw through 2 loops) twice, yrh and draw through all loops on hook 5ch picot ch5, ss in 5th ch from hook
You can find a full list of all abbreviations we use in our abbreviations and conversions guide. This pattern is written in UK terminology but you can easily convert it to US terms using this handy chart.
