Crocheted Hand Towel Tutorial (incomplete)

I'm hoping to add some pictures to this tutorial soon, but, as we all know, I'm not that great when it comes to picture taking.



Crocheted Hand Towels—Advanced
(makes two)

Materials:
1 hand towel (cheaper is better)
1 ball of 100% cotton yarn to match the towel. I used Sugar ‘n’ Cream.
Matching sewing thread
Button (larger is better)

Tools:
Sewing machine with button hole setting
Button hole foot
Shears
Serger (optional)
Seam ripper
Size J crochet hook

Instructions:
1. Your hand towel probably came folded in half with the sides tucked in. Open up the center fold, and cut along that line.

2. Take the halves over to the serger and serge the cut edge. If you don’t have a serger (like me), then run a zig zag stitch along the cut edge of your towels. Keep the sides folded in and sew all layers together. Repeat with the cut edge of the second half of the towel.

3. Read the directions for making button holes and attaching the correct presser foot to your machine in it’s manual. Now read them again to make sure you understand, and if you’ve never made a button hole before, take a couple of practice runs on some scrap fabric.

4. Line up the serged edge of the towel with the outside edge of the presser foot. I set my button hole foot for the fourth little dash, which is just over half an inch.

5. Sew your button hole. When you finish, raise the presser foot, and without cutting the thread, simply slide the towel back (you may need to tug a little on your thread to give some slack). Reset your button hole foot to the fourth dash or the half inch mark, and set it down so that the part of the presser foot that it connected to the machine is directly over the button hole you just made—you shouldn’t be able to see it once the presser foot is lowered.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have reached the edge of the towel. Repeat with the second half of the towel.
7. Take your seam ripper, and insert the point through one end of a button hole and out through the center of the button hole, and cut. Repeat from the other side of the button hole. Continue in this manner until all of the button holes have been opened.

8. Whew! That’s all of the sewing (well, with the machine, anyway). Now take your towels, your yarn, and your crochet hook over to a comfy chair, and get ready for the crocheting part.

9. Insert your hook into the button hole on the far right (I’m right handed; make adjustments as needed if your are left handed (sorry)). Pull the yarn though, then hook the working yarn and pull through the loop on your hook. Repeat until you get to the end of the row (depending on your tension, you may need to make two stitches in each hole, or in every other hole. You just don’t want the towel to pull inward from the tightness of your crochet). Basically, you’re just single crocheting; imagine that the row of button holes is an existing row of crochet, and you’re inserting the hook into the same space you normally would.

10. Single crochet three more rows.

11. On the fifth row, chain one, then skip the first stitch, sc into the second. Repeat this until you have five stitches left in the row.

12. Chain two, then double crochet into each stitch. Continue this for five rows, cut your yarn and weave in your ends.

13. Make sure your button is the right size to fit through the double crochet. Sew it on the front side, centered, just below the double crochet “neck”.

14. Voila! Crocheted hand towel!