How to Make a Simple Tea Towel and Dish Cloth for Play

In our Little House on the Prairie Unit Study, dressing up as the Ingalls family quickly became just the beginning. To truly bring pioneer life to life, we leaned into meaningful, practical projects that children in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s time would have understood well, household handiwork. If you’re looking for gentle, skill-building activities that connect beautifully with history, this lesson on How to Make a Tea Towel and How to Make a Dish Cloth fits perfectly into a Little House–style homeschool rhythm.

Alongside imaginative play, we kept busy with simple sewing and knitting projects that felt both purposeful and authentic. C10 made an extra dish cloth and two tea towels to go with our handmade sink unit, and these small projects turned into rich learning experiences full of patience, problem-solving, and pride.

Catch Up! If you haven’t read all about our first week on the prairie, I would encourage you to go and read my Little House in the Big woods post. This covers everything we did from making nightdresses, to prairie cooking and making button strings. It also gives you a good idea of everything we achieved with our own little house on the prairie renovations!

How to Make a Simple Tea Towel and Dish Cloth for Play

Making a Tea Towel (A Simple Pioneer Sewing Project)

To make our tea towels, I cut up an old white linen dress, plain, sturdy, and without a pattern, much like fabric would have been in pioneer homes. Both Lillie and I worked with the material, talking about how nothing would have gone to waste on the frontier.

The edges were hemmed by hand, just as we had done previously when making curtains. This time, all four edges were carefully hemmed to create a durable, washable tea towel. It was slow, thoughtful work.

Once hemmed, the tea towel was decorated using the same thick orange thread we had used for the dish cloths. The decoration was simple, just a straight stitch, but pushing a needle and heavy thread through thick linen took time, strength, and perseverance.

It took ages… but it was absolutely worth the effort.

This project naturally opened up conversations about:

• Why pioneer textiles were plain and practical
• How long everyday items took to make by hand
• The value of care and craftsmanship

Check out week two! Last week we focused on Farmer Boy. This is the second book in the Little House on the Prairie book set. During the week we did lots of prairie cooking (hasty pudding, making a sour dough starter and some prairie bread) and also made some button lamps, a prairie ladder, and some peg hooks. Gary and the little ones did some gardening in our prairie garden and we tried to make some more of our rag rug.

Knitting a Dish Cloth (Practical Handwork for Children)

This week, I chose to make a dish cloth. I already knew how to knit, and Mummy had bought some 100% cotton yarn a while ago, perfect for a functional cloth.

While we couldn’t remember Laura or her family specifically knitting dish cloths, we decided it made a wonderful, colorful addition to our Little House play. Ours is bright orange, made from real cotton yarn, and will hang from a hook in the house just like it might have in a pioneer kitchen.

Check out week three! We focused on The Little House on the Prairie. This is the third book in the Little House on the Prairie book set. During the week we did some of prairie cooking (soda biscuits) and also made some curtains, hay sticks and a hammock net. Gary and the little ones did some gardening in our prairie garden and we tried to make some more of our rag rug.

How to Make a Dish Cloth (Basic Method)

• Cast on 32 stitches
• Knit every row using the knit stitch
• Continue until the piece forms a square

Simple, repetitive, and calming, this project was ideal for building confidence and reinforcing basic knitting skills.

Using the Dish Cloth in Real Life

This dish cloth won’t just live in our play space. It will be used by Lillie (Mrs. Ingalls) and Charlotte (Mary Ingalls) to help clean dishes, but first, it has an important job.

We’ll be using it to cover our sourdough starter as we prepare to make a loaf of sourdough bread without dried yeast. Because the dish cloth is loosely knitted, it allows air to flow while keeping the starter protected, making it both historically appropriate and scientifically interesting.

Learning doesn’t get much more real than that.

Week four we focused on ‘On the Banks of Plum Creek’ and the children learnt about herbal medicine, stained a rocking chair for the corner of the house, made some baskets and began a productive Little House vegetable garden. And lastly, we made some home-made yogurt and a blueberry pie.

Why These Projects Work So Well in a Little House on the Prairie Unit Study

These simple handcrafts naturally blend:

• History – understanding pioneer life and daily labor
• Math – counting stitches, measuring fabric
• Fine motor skills – sewing, knitting, hand control
• Character development – patience, persistence, responsibility

They also help children appreciate the effort behind everyday items we often take for granted.

Hands-On Activity Ideas to Extend the Lesson (How to Make a Tea Towel and Dish Cloth)

Try pairing these projects with one or more of the following:

1. Textile Comparison Station
   Compare linen, cotton, and modern microfiber cloths. Discuss durability and purpose.
2. Pioneer Chore Day
   Use the tea towel and dish cloth while doing age-appropriate kitchen chores.
3. Dyeing Fabric Naturally
   Experiment with onion skins, tea, or berries to dye scrap fabric.
4. Sourdough Science
   Use the knitted dish cloth while observing fermentation and yeast growth.
5. Story Connection
   Read a Little House passage involving household work and discuss how Laura might have helped.

During week six, we focused on By the Shores of the Silver Lake. We made signs for over the front door and inside the cottage, wove our own baskets, Thomas began building a stove for the cottage, made some molasses popcorn balls and a very tasty prairie chicken with home grown green beans.

Reflection Questions for Children

• How do you think pioneer children felt about making items they used every day?
• What was the hardest part of sewing or knitting by hand?
• How is this different from buying towels at a store?
• Why do you think families valued handmade items so much?
• What is something you use today that might have taken days to make long ago?

Last week, our focus was on The Long Winter. We made this tea towel and dish cloth (I’m posting about them a bit later), did some prairie cooking and made butter, bread, and jam. Thomas also completed the Little House stove and Lillie made a table cloth.

Final Thoughts about Making a Tea Towel and a Dish Cloth

Learning How to Make a Tea Towel and How to Make a Dish Cloth may seem simple, but these small projects carry enormous educational value. They slow learning down in the best way, grounding history in the hands and hearts of our children.

If you’re building a Little House on the Prairie Unit Study, these activities offer a beautiful way to blend practical life skills with meaningful historical understanding, one stitch at a time. 🧵✨