I wrote this post originally and I just felt like it was wrong. So I waited. And my brain finally told me why. So here's attempt two, or three.
I think in off the wall ways. And my brain can pull stuff together in seemingly random ways. A few years ago I realized that I had a lot of random clothes that weren't really thrift quality, and I was going through way too many paper towels. I don't like waste. Paper towels have their uses, and I still use them. Making bacon will always require paper towels. But there are a lot of things that could be handled without paper towels.
But hand towels weren't necessarily the solution. One, they are too big for a lot of the jobs, so I always feel like I need to wash them early or keep using them until they are really dirty. Two, I like my hand towels for things that need a lot of absorbing, like water/liquid spills. And lastly, three, I just like having some nice looking hand towels on hand and kitchen life can trash towels pretty quickly. When you add in pets, and my son, towels can see a lot of unusual things in my household.
Now, I used to have a rag bag. It was pretty full. But somehow whenever I needed a rag, I couldn't find what I needed easily in the bag. The rags were either too big or too small for the job. Or just the wrong type of material. I didn't toss the rag bag but it's a lot smaller nowadays.
So I decided to make use of the old clothes in a new way. When I first did this, I just took a piece of butcher paper and made a 12" x 12" square pattern. Easy peasy. Except I can't draw a straight line to save my life, so the less said about those impromptu patterns the better. I ended up buying this set of quilters squares because I found so many uses for the pieces of fabric that I got from those clothes, including making new clothes. https://amzn.to/2CroK1h Now when I have a pile, I just sit down and cut as many squares as I can, of all sizes, and toss the rest. I store the squares in a tote until I'm ready to use them. And I can tell you that there is a real shortage of the 7.5" and 9.5" squares right now.
Making the cloths is pretty easy. And I use them throughout the house. Because they are made from recycled materials I really don't stress it if they end up stained, torn, or holey. In fact I deliberately reach for them if I think that is a possible result of whatever job I'm doing. They aren't too big. They are rarely ever too small. And when they are dirty, they join the laundry pile rather than the garbage pile. When I finally use them so much that it's time to toss them I know that I have gotten full use out of that material.
First off, the materials. I try to do one side out of a knit and the other out of a woven material. For the knits, I've used old t-shirts, knit pants, skirts, sheets, etc. If I no longer have a use for something in it's current form, I take a few minutes and use quilter squares and a rotary cutter to get all the squares out of it I can. I don't feel bad about doing this with clothes because if you donate clothes with any damage or holes they just end up in the trash. At least I'm going to get a lot more use out of them.
As far as woven materials, the best source so far, for us, is old pillowcases and flat sheets. But that is because we don't wear many things made of woven materials. Other people I know use old shirts, pants, etc. But please note, I don't go buy materials for these cleaning cloths. I use whatever is on hand in the house.Every once in a while I end up with a dead bathroom towel. Either old age wear and tear, or holes, or whatever. And I'll cut those up to use as a side as well. I just make sure to use a tighter serger stitch to keep them from fraying.
For the cloths I use the largest square. I don't bother with anything more than smoothing out the fabric, laying the square as close to straight along the grain as I can eyeball it, and then cutting. I end up with 12.5" fabric squares. When I get to the next step, I just grab a stack of knit and a stack of woven and sit down at the serger. There really is only one more step for these in my house. I take one of each and serge the outside seams. That's it. Then they get folded in half and added to the stack in the kitchen. They get use for whatever I want to use them for, including impromptu napkins or pot holders sometimes. If you want to hide the stitches, you could serge three sides, flip it inside out and then use the sewing machine to close it. But for what I use them for, that's too much trouble. If I need nice looking towels for some reason I have a stack of those. Keeping those towels looking nice is one of the reason why I make these cloths. The serger seam keeps the woven material from unraveling and I've yet to have one fail.
If you look around the internet you'll see suggestions to add snaps so you can roll them. I did that one time. It wasn't worth the time and effort. The snaps just don't hold up to the usage. And they can sometimes scratch things I don't want scratched. If you want them rolled like paper towels, the most effective method I've found is to use a 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe piece and roll them around it with each cloth overlapping the next one by about 1 inch. I just prefer stacking them.
In my house the cloths tend to last a couple of years of regular use. Some will get stains. Some will get holes. Every once in a while, some will get tossed because they are used for something that I just don't want to wash in my washing machine. I tend to grab the ones that are the most stained or holey when I know the cloth is going to be tossed after the clean up. One last good use out of it. When I notice I'm starting to run low on them, I make a new batch. And the bonus, the dressy/fancy hand towels tend to last longer.
I think in off the wall ways. And my brain can pull stuff together in seemingly random ways. A few years ago I realized that I had a lot of random clothes that weren't really thrift quality, and I was going through way too many paper towels. I don't like waste. Paper towels have their uses, and I still use them. Making bacon will always require paper towels. But there are a lot of things that could be handled without paper towels.
But hand towels weren't necessarily the solution. One, they are too big for a lot of the jobs, so I always feel like I need to wash them early or keep using them until they are really dirty. Two, I like my hand towels for things that need a lot of absorbing, like water/liquid spills. And lastly, three, I just like having some nice looking hand towels on hand and kitchen life can trash towels pretty quickly. When you add in pets, and my son, towels can see a lot of unusual things in my household.
Now, I used to have a rag bag. It was pretty full. But somehow whenever I needed a rag, I couldn't find what I needed easily in the bag. The rags were either too big or too small for the job. Or just the wrong type of material. I didn't toss the rag bag but it's a lot smaller nowadays.
So I decided to make use of the old clothes in a new way. When I first did this, I just took a piece of butcher paper and made a 12" x 12" square pattern. Easy peasy. Except I can't draw a straight line to save my life, so the less said about those impromptu patterns the better. I ended up buying this set of quilters squares because I found so many uses for the pieces of fabric that I got from those clothes, including making new clothes. https://amzn.to/2CroK1h Now when I have a pile, I just sit down and cut as many squares as I can, of all sizes, and toss the rest. I store the squares in a tote until I'm ready to use them. And I can tell you that there is a real shortage of the 7.5" and 9.5" squares right now.
Making the cloths is pretty easy. And I use them throughout the house. Because they are made from recycled materials I really don't stress it if they end up stained, torn, or holey. In fact I deliberately reach for them if I think that is a possible result of whatever job I'm doing. They aren't too big. They are rarely ever too small. And when they are dirty, they join the laundry pile rather than the garbage pile. When I finally use them so much that it's time to toss them I know that I have gotten full use out of that material.
First off, the materials. I try to do one side out of a knit and the other out of a woven material. For the knits, I've used old t-shirts, knit pants, skirts, sheets, etc. If I no longer have a use for something in it's current form, I take a few minutes and use quilter squares and a rotary cutter to get all the squares out of it I can. I don't feel bad about doing this with clothes because if you donate clothes with any damage or holes they just end up in the trash. At least I'm going to get a lot more use out of them.
As far as woven materials, the best source so far, for us, is old pillowcases and flat sheets. But that is because we don't wear many things made of woven materials. Other people I know use old shirts, pants, etc. But please note, I don't go buy materials for these cleaning cloths. I use whatever is on hand in the house.Every once in a while I end up with a dead bathroom towel. Either old age wear and tear, or holes, or whatever. And I'll cut those up to use as a side as well. I just make sure to use a tighter serger stitch to keep them from fraying.
For the cloths I use the largest square. I don't bother with anything more than smoothing out the fabric, laying the square as close to straight along the grain as I can eyeball it, and then cutting. I end up with 12.5" fabric squares. When I get to the next step, I just grab a stack of knit and a stack of woven and sit down at the serger. There really is only one more step for these in my house. I take one of each and serge the outside seams. That's it. Then they get folded in half and added to the stack in the kitchen. They get use for whatever I want to use them for, including impromptu napkins or pot holders sometimes. If you want to hide the stitches, you could serge three sides, flip it inside out and then use the sewing machine to close it. But for what I use them for, that's too much trouble. If I need nice looking towels for some reason I have a stack of those. Keeping those towels looking nice is one of the reason why I make these cloths. The serger seam keeps the woven material from unraveling and I've yet to have one fail.
If you look around the internet you'll see suggestions to add snaps so you can roll them. I did that one time. It wasn't worth the time and effort. The snaps just don't hold up to the usage. And they can sometimes scratch things I don't want scratched. If you want them rolled like paper towels, the most effective method I've found is to use a 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe piece and roll them around it with each cloth overlapping the next one by about 1 inch. I just prefer stacking them.
In my house the cloths tend to last a couple of years of regular use. Some will get stains. Some will get holes. Every once in a while, some will get tossed because they are used for something that I just don't want to wash in my washing machine. I tend to grab the ones that are the most stained or holey when I know the cloth is going to be tossed after the clean up. One last good use out of it. When I notice I'm starting to run low on them, I make a new batch. And the bonus, the dressy/fancy hand towels tend to last longer.
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