Last week, I opened one of our linen cabinets in search of an old towel and everything came tumbling out.  Once I had what I was looking for, the guilt of just shoving everything back and closing the doors to hide the ugly mess hit me.  I opened the doors back up and took matters into my own hands – reorganizing.  After all was said and done, I realized that we had a disproportionate number of washcloths to towels.  Even a family of six doesn’t need three times more washcloths than towels!

Time for a washcloth intervention!

After pulling out some of the washcloths, I decided to make ditty bags out of them for camping adventures.  Last week I had two kids off at camp, this week two kids at camp, next week two kids again…and so on.  Summer is for camping and all four of my kids love to camp!

I began by matching up plain colored washcloths with washcloths that had a pattern on them.

Then I trimmed up three sides so they were both even, pinning them, right sides together, as I went along.  I did not trim the top of the washcloths – they were already finished out and I didn’t see the need to trim them and then hem them.  I was repurposing, not reinventing!

Using a wide zig-zag stitch with a medium stitch length, I sewed the washcloths with a 1/4″ seam allowance on the two sides and then sewed across the bottom.

This is a photo of the inside-out washcloths after they were sewn together.

Then I turned the bag right-side out and used my handy-dandy corner tool to push the two corners out.

This is the ditty bag, ready for the next step.

Using about 16″ of 100% cotton, 1/4″ diameter cording, thread a wide-eyed needle.  This will become the drawstring for the ditty bag.

Using large stitches, begin at the corner of the top of the ditty bag and sew all the way around the opening, tying off the cording with a knot.  A camper can not only but a bar of soap in it and use it as-is in the shower, they can also store all of their personal items inside it (in a plastic bag) to make it easy to carry their toiletries at once!