Give Tea Towels New Life With This Bread Basket DIY

When it comes to multi-purpose, tea towels are the kings of the kitchen. Useful for grabbing hot pans and steadying wobbly mixing bowls to drying dishes and mopping up counter spills, these hemmed rectangles of cotton are versatile all-rounders. So, it's no wonder they can become thin over time or even begin to fray at the edges. A simple way to give waning tea towels a new lease of life is to turn them into cute little bread baskets. The best bit? There's no sewing involved. All you need to master is a folding and tucking technique and you can turn any tea towel into a functional and fun bread basket.

Now, you must use a quality kitchen towel that isn't too shabby for this DIY. Older tea towels are fine, but don't use one with holes or tears, since the final bread basket will be displayed openly on your dinner table. The sturdy kitchen towels chefs can't get enough of are made by Utopia Kitchen, but any clean and tidy variety will work. To begin, fold your tea towel in half lengthwise, then fold in the sides so they meet in the middle. At the bottom edge, fold the seam up to create a flap and a small triangle that sits at the outer side before repeating at the top edge. Repeat on the other end. Fold the flaps outside on both sides, then use them to turn the tea towel inside itself to create the basket shape.

A tea towel that has a pretty design or colorful motif running around the edges will make the most attractive bread basket. No matter whether you fill it with slices of store-bought baguette or hunks of no-knead sourdough, the rustic charm of the tea towel will lend your tablescape a cozy feel. The finished baskets also have a slimline rectangular shape, making them easy to fit on even the busiest of tables. Plus, their width is large enough to accommodate a dinner roll (depending on the size of your tea towel), so you can slot several of them together in a straight line (why not fill it with croissants or some pain au chocolate at breakfast to turn your kitchen counter into a cute Parisian-style cafe?). 

Once your bread has been devoured, you can deconstruct your basket and set it aside in a drawer, saving you on cupboard space. If your tea towels are particularly bedraggled or have holes, consider cutting them up and using them as cleaning rags to shine mirrors or wipe down greasy kitchen cabinetry instead. Old tea towels can be turned into Swiffer pads for mops, too.