Saturday, January 22, 2011

The Search for a Quality Dish Towel



In my youth, almost every girl, who had a hope chest, had a least one set of embroidered dish towels. If you are going to spend the effort to embroider on a dishtowel, I would strongly urge you to take a bit of trouble, before you begin, to find a worthy towel. Embroidery is much more difficult if the foundation fabric is poor.

Most of the flour sack dishtowels commonly found in stores are hardly worth the effort to embroider them. They are too often thin, and too loosely woven. They also don’t wash well and collect lint from other items in the wash. Compared to the towels I used for embroidery as a young woman, these are miserable imitations. They are white, and that is about all I can say for them.

As a result, I have been on an 8-year odyssey to find a reliable, reasonable source for suitable dishtowels. What do I look for? What do I recommend?

I first look for 100% cotton fiber with a good twist to the threads. Most of us know that, to be properly absorbent, a towel has to be 100% natural fiber. Of course, linen makes a wonderful dish towel, if you can afford it. But, cotton is pretty great as well, and much more reasonably priced. I try to buy fiber that is untreated by finishes. The twist in the threads also makes a difference. If the fiber twist is slack, the fabric is weaker and will wear out more quickly. It is less smooth in appearance and sometimes the fibers will pill. If the fiber twist is too tight, the towel will not be absorbent. Like Goldilocks, it has to be "just right."

I also look for a tight weave. Most flour sack towels have a plain, over-under weave. I gently stretch the fabric over the pad of my finger. If I can see any of my finger between the threads, I put the towel down and keep looking. Sometimes I can see the threads pull apart. Completely unsuitable. I often think of how glad I am not to have to carry flour in a bag made from that!

As I look at the fabric in a towel, I consider the embroidery stitches I commonly use. I know that, to be able to make an attractive satin stitch, I need the fabric to be tightly woven. Otherwise, the edges of the stitch will look ragged. When I make a french knot, I don’t want the knot to pull right through the fabric. Some embroidery designs have small elements and tight curves. These require small, or even tiny stitches. Such stitches are impossible on a loosely woven fabric.

I always check the local stores. Sometimes I come across a set of dish towels that are good enough, but not often. I once found a set of four towels under the Martha Stewart label at K-Mart. Sadly, they were not reliable from package to package or from store to store. Sometimes those you find at Sam’s Club are adequate, but sometimes they are like cheesecloth.You may have better luck at your local stores. I can make three good online recommendations.

The “fabric grade” flour sack towel at The Towel Place.com is a wonderful towel, perfect for embroidery. They are hemmed on all four sides and more on-grain than many others I’ve seen. They actually fold up squarely! These are like the towels I remember. However, these towels are largely beyond my purse. The towels themselves are a little pricey. A set of 6 is $19.99. But the shipping is so high that it essentially doubles the cost. You may consider the cost worth the quality, especially for a special set made for the hope chest. These are truly outstanding towels. You can buy a sample, if you wish, to compare them to lesser towels, but the shipping will kill you. ;o)

My second recommendation is the flour sack towels from Herrschners.com. I recently ordered another set and was pleased that the quality is still superior. The weave is tight and better than almost anything else out there. These towels are very suitable for embroidery. The price has just increased a bit recently, but the largest size is $15.99 for a set of 7. The towels are hemmed on all four sides, but like most other flour sack towels, they are not on-grain. This means that they don’t hang or fold straight. So, I buy the largest size, cut them to square them up and re-hem. This seems like a lot of work, but it makes a nicer set. Sometimes I add a colorful, calico border, as long as I’m going to the extra effort. Herrschners will also send you a print catalog, with all kinds of embroidery and yarn projects.

UPDATE - November 14, 2017: I have finally found the towel I LOVE! Mary's Kitchen Flour Sack Towels are my new go-to towel for hand embroidery and all other crafting for the hope chest. The quality is super! The fabric is tightly woven, sturdy - thick enough but not too thick. The towels are completely suitable for hand embroidery and all my other favorite methods of decorative treatments like stenciling, fabric painting and sewing. The quality weave is also absorbent, and the price is completely affordable! In fact, the price is lower than any other comparable towel that I can find on the market. The first 11 towels cost just $1.99 each, but buying a dozen (or more) will get each towel reduced to $1.69 each! And the best news is that the shipping is also very reasonable. Bonus - these towels are pre-washed and pre-shrunk so I can start crafting immediately! AND - they have that nice corner hanging strip. I am seriously happy to have access to these fabulous towels. Hooray!

Some people really don’t mind what towels they use, but I simply have to have a decent towel. If you have another reliable source for good, flour sack dish towels, please share that information in the comments. I’ll love you forever!

21 comments:

  1. Just found your blog browsing :-).
    Wanted to share that I've ordered towels from:
    http://www.quilterstudio.com/teatowel_list_center_layout.htm
    and I'm very please with the quality and their
    shipping.
    Hope it helps! :-)

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  2. Oh!! Also Colonial Patterns' floursack towels
    are nice quality and your local Joann fabric store
    or a Hobby Lobby store may carry them in packages
    of 2. They have 2 sizes available.

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  3. I have an Etsy shop and embroider on Tea Towels and handkerchiefs. The best Tea Towels I've found have come from Smart and Final. $14.00 for a set of 12. Hemmed on all sides. I've used tea towels from several different places and prefer using these.

    Hope this helps!

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  4. Thanks Susan, that is a great price for the towels. I'm glad to have that link!

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  5. Found some for $2 and the Dollasr General stores. They have striped horizontal banding near the bottom in yellow, green, turquoise, and tan. These are not smooth like flour sacks but not real nubby like terry towels. I guess you could call them waffle towels. Wash and embroider beautifully. Wash first to get them to shrink as much as possible before you stitch on them.

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  6. can you let me know which of the flour sack towels you liked? I looked on the website at flour sacks...there appeared to be many sizes & quantities but I didn't see any labeled "heavy duty". any guidance would be appreciated. also, what size towel do you like to use?

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  7. I too would like to know which towels you ordered from The Towel Place as there are several to choose from. Also, did you try any towels from the comment posts of your readers? If so, would you have others to recommend? Thanks, Shannnon

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  8. I actually purchase mine from Fleet Farm. They are heavy weight but an off white color and like you stated do not always fold up straight.

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  9. I would recommend you all Amazon.com ,I bought almost a dozen from a company called Cottoncloudco , it's Turkish cotton kitchen towels. Just amazing.It's more luxury than all my old towels.Amazing colors and it's all natural eco friendly.You can type cottoncloudco to amazon search and you should be able to find it.

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  10. Hi, Kathleen, I am so much benefited from your post.I bought some towel as your information.These towels are smooth and heavy weight. Thanks for your info and tips.

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  11. Hi there! Thanks so much for this wonderful information. I, too, am a bit picky about my towels. I've had more than a few run-ins with poor quality towels & I've been searching and searching for the right towels to use with my new embroidery machine. I'm 23 years old & teaching myself sewing and embroidery with the help from a lot of lovely people on the internet. Love your blog!

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  12. Thank you for writing such a great post. I've finally found the tea towel I've been looking for. So far, I tried almost every single brand from Amazon, walmart, target, local store, none, literally none of them were what I was looking for. When it comes to flours sack tea towels, I'm looking for 2 things:

    1- It has to be thick, not like a cheesecloth, so that I can do embroidery.

    2- It has to absorb very good. That's the whole purpose of it, isn't it?

    After reading your post, I gave a try to Mary's Kitchen towels and wowww! That's the winner. I don't know how I could not find them so far, but I'm really impressed. Those towels are what I'm looking for.

    Again, thank you for ending my search for the best flour sacks. God bless you!

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    Replies
    1. You are a girl after my own heart, Jenny! I am also glad to have found these towels! I hope you'll look around on the blog and find some other inspiration. Thanks for reading.

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  13. Awesome! I am just starting to embroider on tea towels. These towels sound awesome. Just ordered them and excited to get them. Thanks so much for taking the time to help with your advice!!!

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    Replies
    1. I'm glad you found this post, Kimberly, and that it is helpful. I'm sure you'll be pleased with the towels.

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  14. Thanks, Kathleen. It's hard to find a reliable dish towel review.

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  15. I have looked for years for the perfect flour sack towel and bought so many different brands over the last 10 years. They were all such a disappointment in quality.. I had finally found my perfect flour sack towel at Target in the Threshold brand but the blank towels were discontinued several years ago. The were beautifully hemmed, perfectly square, and washed amazingly well. On the hunt again lead me to Mills Fleet Farms and Berg Bag flour sack towels. They are nice and heavy but not preshunk and often not squared. On the hunt again, I finally found your post and ordered a dozen of Mary's flour sack towels and am so thrilled!! They are the perfect flour sack towel!! Mary's Flour Sack towels will now be my go to towel and I plan to order in bulk from the company. Thank you for having the same passion for these towels as I do and for the recommendation.

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  16. When you machine embroidery on flour sack towels, where do you place the design?

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    Replies
    1. Usually on the edge of the towel, often in the center bottom or in the right hand corner. It's entirely up to you.

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