Kitchen Towels for Collecting & Art

Although we use kitchen towels (sometimes called tea towels or dish towels) quite a bit in our home, many people have gone to paper towels or reusable towels.  These kitchen towels were the only type available when I was growing up, and now many people are collecting them.

They come in various fabrics and designs.  Mother used to purchase rolls of linen toweling from the Sears or Montgomery Ward mail order catalogs, then cut to length and hem.  My sister and I did this as a 4-H project and entered our neatly hemmed towels in the Dutchess County Fair.

Souvenir Towels – Many people collected and still do these towels from various areas they visit.  The towels often will have the town or state’s name with designs prticular to that region.  These also might have designs from a particular popular attraction.

Vintage Towels – Those used years ago that are in good condition.  They might be ones purchased or handmade.  There are books about these and guidelines for collecting.

Today’s Towels - You usually purchase them today to use in your kitchen.  However, they can be cut and sewn together for various projects.  We did make tea towel aprons as 4-H projects, too.  What about quilts?  Table linens?  Placemats and napkins?

Fabrics for towels, over the years, consisted of linen, coarse-weave fabric, unbleached linen and linen/cotton combination.  Some more recent kitchen towels are made of terry cloth. 

The designs varied from stripes to kitchen designs, flowers, plaids, and fruit.  Some even had the days of the week with various housekeeping activities pictured on them.

Do you collect vintage kitchen towels?  Do you use them as fabric for craft projects?

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