Throw In The Towel

As Douglas Adams said, in Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy…

“A towel, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have…You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”

There have been times when I have needed a towel and been unprepared – like the summer of 2011, when 4 of us stripped to our underwear and had an impromptu swim at a Norfolk beach. We ended up having to share just one towel – Marion’s dog-drying-towel!

I have decided that as we are near the sea so much more these days, it would make sense for us to keep a towel in each of our cars. So I took one of my kitchen roller towels apart [I don’t have a roller here] and rehemmed the two sections. Then I made neat little bags from a remnant of curtain material. And here they are – ready to go.

If you want to make a similar bag, first fold and roll up your towel tightly and measure the length and circumference. Add 2” to each measurement.  Mine was 10”x10”, I cut a square of fabric 12”x 12”.

Fold in half, right sides together and sew the long side seam. Flatten, so the seam runs up the centre, and sew across the bottom. If you want a square base, then sew across each corner. Hem the top edge. Turn inside out and attach hanging loop. Roll up your towel, push it in – and head for the beach!