Making your own kitchen towels

[Fat Guy]

It seems to be towel week in the eG Forums, so I was wondering: if I just go out and buy some fabric by the yard -- you can usually get the last few yards of the roll cheap -- what's to stop me from just cutting it up in order to create kitchen towels? I mean, kitchen towels seem to be ridiculously overpriced. I'm sure the raw materials are a zillion times cheaper than the towels.

Would I have to buy specific kinds of fabric? I assume 100% cotton would be a basic requirement.

Would there be any sewing involved? Or is it possible to do it without hemming the edges?

What about using old tee-shirts, like so many of us I'm sure use as a source of rags?

Has anybody actually done this? Tell all.

[alanamoana]

ummm, costco sells a pack of 48 general use towels for like $12...that's 24 cents per towel. cheap enough to almost be disposable.

that's what i buy because i like to have a zillion towels around the kitchen when i'm working. i guess it is a result of all those years working in professional kitchens.

[snowangel]

Steven, in theory this is a great idea, but with so many kitchen towels as cheap as they are, why bother?

For one thing, most fabric iin fabric stores is of too tight a weave to be very absorbent. Just about the cheapest I ever see fabric (remnants) is $.99/yard. So, figuring that you can get four towels out of a yard, that makes them $.25/each. And, this assumes you can find something appropriate for $.99/yard.

Then, you have to hem them, or your laundry is going to be filled with fraying towel strands. Press each edge over twice, then sew. That takes time. I'd rather be cooking!

The trick, as alamoana says, is to buy them in bulk at warehouses, or look at places like TJ Maxx right after a holiday, and they'll have the "holiday" towels marked way, way down.

[K8memphis]

It seems to be towel week in the eG Forums, so I was wondering: if I just go out and buy some fabric by the yard -- you can usually get the last few yards of the roll cheap -- what's to stop me from just cutting it up in order to create kitchen towels? I mean, kitchen towels seem to be ridiculously overpriced. I'm sure the raw materials are a zillion times cheaper than the towels.

Would I have to buy specific kinds of fabric? I assume 100% cotton would be a basic requirement.

Would there be any sewing involved? Or is it possible to do it without hemming the edges?

What about using old tee-shirts, like so many of us I'm sure use as a source of rags?

Has anybody actually done this? Tell all.

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You are totally cracking me up. A little obsessed are we??

One problem with making your own is lint. You have to locate the nice material. And truth to tell, back in the day, Mom would use the feedsacks for towels and pillow cases and dresses and...well you get the picture. But Mom sewed too.

Do you sew? Do you have a machine? I mean you can fray the edges too but this method works better for napkins because all those lovely pretty frayed strands of thread will catch fire easier when they are nattily folded up for use as a potholder.

I mean you can hem by hand -- a straight stitch by machine is almost as good as this idea for potholders that is.

But no please don't even think that you would consider using slightly used t- shirts. First of all knits don't fair well with heat, they melt. Use them for spills on the floor and washing the car and cleaning icky stuff, or scrunched up to apply paint to walls, but please never in the kitchen with food.

There's stuff you can spray on raw edges called fray stop where you don't have to hem but it might increase flamability, not sure.

But buying them is much easier. And hopefully therapeutic. Shop a lot!

[Fat Guy]

I was thinking about aesthetics. (The shirt thing was kind of a thought tangent.) I know it's possible to buy a zillion shop-towels for three cents, but I was thinking about nice towels like Williams-Sonoma sells for $20 for a small set. I figured it might be easy to reproduce that sort of thing much cheaper from purchased fabric.

[K8memphis]

I was thinking about aesthetics. (The shirt thing was kind of a thought tangent.) I know it's possible to buy a zillion shop-towels for three cents, but I was thinking about nice towels like Williams-Sonoma sells for $20 for a small set. I figured it might be easy to reproduce that sort of thing much cheaper from purchased fabric.

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I just don't see that kind of fabric in the fabric stores. Wonder where you could get it? Y'know what makes great great towels? Brand new clean cloth diapers. Very absorbant

[Fat Guy]

OMG I never considered that.

When our baby was in the NICU, it was a bonanza of free stuff. I must have walked out of there with ten cloth diapers a day for almost a week. We never used them for anything. They're just taking up space in a closet. I must investigate this at once.

[K8memphis]

OMG I never considered that.

When our baby was in the NICU, it was a bonanza of free stuff. I must have walked out of there with ten cloth diapers a day for almost a week. We never used them for anything. They're just taking up space in a closet. I must investigate this at once.

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Dude, you are set for life!

[snowangel]

Steven, if you want pretty, look here.

And, yes to diapers. I have two kinds -- the single layer bird's eye cloth (which are great for drying dishes and dusting, and the ones that have the "padding" in a strip down the middle. The latter are super absorbent. I have actually had to go out and buy diapers because the ones I had were trashed (my kids wore cloth).

[Fat Guy]

Yup, I've got both kinds: the flat and the ones with the extra strip down the middle. Lots and lots of them, never used.

Continue to talk amongst yourselves. I won't need any kitchen towels for a decade or so.

[Anna N]

Yup, I've got both kinds: the flat and the ones with the extra strip down the middle. Lots and lots of them, never used.

Continue to talk amongst yourselves. I won't need any kitchen towels for a decade or so.

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And if you kept PJ's receiving blankets you should be good for a few more decades. My daughter recycled hers into kitchen towels and they work well.

[Richard Kilgore]

Geesh! And I thought I was a penny pincher.

I buy bulk packages of towels cheap, and also wait for towel sales at William-Sonoma and Sur La Table for the more attractive ones. They usually have some on sale a few times a year. TJ MAxx and Marshall's are also a good source.

[Fat Guy]

Yup, I've got both kinds: the flat and the ones with the extra strip down the middle. Lots and lots of them, never used.

Continue to talk amongst yourselves. I won't need any kitchen towels for a decade or so.

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And if you kept PJ's receiving blankets you should be good for a few more decades. My daughter recycled hers into kitchen towels and they work well.

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I think we gave away the receiving blankets -- of which we had amassed many -- as hand-me-downs.

But man, we have a lot of these cloth diapers. We had grand plans for them, but idealism gave way to expediency and we went with wasteful, toxic, disposable diapers. We're not proud. I'm even less proud of just how many I pilfered. At least now they'll get used for something.

[K8memphis]

Yup, I've got both kinds: the flat and the ones with the extra strip down the middle. Lots and lots of them, never used.

Continue to talk amongst yourselves. I won't need any kitchen towels for a decade or so.

←

And if you kept PJ's receiving blankets you should be good for a few more decades. My daughter recycled hers into kitchen towels and they work well.

←

I think we gave away the receiving blankets -- of which we had amassed many -- as hand-me-downs.

But man, we have a lot of these cloth diapers. We had grand plans for them, but idealism gave way to expediency and we went with wasteful, toxic, disposable diapers. We're not proud. I'm even less proud of just how many I pilfered. At least now they'll get used for something.

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I don't know, there are so many clear cut choices to feel guilty about it seems a waste to feel bad about disposables. Once you factor in soap, bleach, storage, olfactory considerations, you gotta use a lot of hot water and it is the costliest utility we have. Then dryer heat. Then the air conditioner has to work harder to offset the heat. Then there's all the time you saved, the stuff that life is made of. I think disposables are the guilt-free-est choice.

And shoot you now have enough absorbancy to mop up New York...Wait...You stole 'em??!!

[K8memphis]

I'm sure they all inadvertently found their way home with you due to the stress of all the events of fatherhood and the nicu etc.

You're not gonna toss me off the board are yah??? I promise I won't tell anyone about the "towels"

Edited April 7, 2007 by K8memphis (log)

[DesertTinker]

It seems to be towel week in the eG Forums, so I was wondering: if I just go out and buy some fabric by the yard -- you can usually get the last few yards of the roll cheap -- what's to stop me from just cutting it up in order to create kitchen towels? I mean, kitchen towels seem to be ridiculously overpriced. I'm sure the raw materials are a zillion times cheaper than the towels.

Would I have to buy specific kinds of fabric? I assume 100% cotton would be a basic requirement.

Would there be any sewing involved? Or is it possible to do it without hemming the edges?

What about using old tee-shirts, like so many of us I'm sure use as a source of rags?

Has anybody actually done this? Tell all.

←

I work in a quilt shop, do all the ordering. Checked with all our suppliers, the least I found huck towelling (the most appropriate fabric) for is $2.15 per yard at cost, shipping not included, Of course the major chains could do it for less, but good luck finding something special like this. Those 24 cents each towels sound amazingly good all of a sudden!