Making Handkerchiefs

Since trying out my own flannel hankies this past winter for in the horse barn, I decided that I was going to make up a bunch of handkerchiefs to give as Christmas gifts.  I wanted to make not only flannel ones, but also 'regular' cotton ones. For warm weather use too, you know.

While yarn shop hopping with my mom earlier this month, we stopped in to a few quilting shops that were near some of the yarn shops.  At one of those quilting shops, I purchased several fat quarters with the intent of using them to make my 'regular' hankies.

After washing, drying, and ironing the fat quarters, I cut each one into two 10"x 10" squares (which left a nice sized strip of fabric left over for scrap quilting or other projects needing small cuts of fabric).  No particular reason for that size square, other than it is what I liked best.

fat quarter 

cut into two 10" squares

Then, having a flash of brilliance, I put my 1/4" foot that I use for piecing quilt blocks onto my sewing machine.  This gave me an easy guide for basting 1/4 inch from the edge of the fabric on all sides.

love my 1/4" presser foot; 

it gets lots of use

After running a basting thread on each side of each piece of fabric, I used a hot iron to press a 1/4" hem to the back side of each square.  The basting thread gave me a nice visual line to follow, rather than having to use a tape measure or my eyes (which never have been that great a judge of distance) while doing the pressing.

just fold at the thread, and press

Once pressed, I took each square back to the sewing machine.  Prior to pressing the fabric, I had changed the presser foot on the machine back to the normal one, and put the sewing machine on the zigzag setting.

regular presser foot for some zigzag room

It only took a few minutes to zigzag the hem down on all four sides of each square.  Trim the threads, and viola, handkerchiefs!

finished hankie

the whole assortment of hankies

love these fabrics; 

it's going to be hard to give them all away