Question...Does anyone use flour sack towels? I picked up a package, they are really big. Are they practical to use? I usually use regular kitchen towels.

I love love love flour sack towels! They are great for drying dishes, covering dough to right (dry or moistened towel), snapping at the grandson who likes to tease just out of reach, tucking a corner in my waistband when cooking so it is right there, piecing into a dress to wear so husband says 'oh honey, you need new clothes!' (just kidding on that one, but hmmm....maybe. Yes, in answer to your question, I still use flour sack towels. When I can find them. Down to only 3 or 4 (sniff)

1 comment

by maobfh 06 Feb 2012

covering dough to RISE. To right? I can't explain

They are nice and big for the kitchen. Great for drying dishes. I like them, just don't have many.

Makes GREAT kitchen towels, I have even add lace and made pillow cases. Get very nice and soft.

I buy mine at orchelin and I Embroider what ever I want on them I have some with Roosters that I got from here and I use them as Kitchen Curtains

My great aunt had hand embroidered these over hmmm, 70 years or so. We have used them for many, many years. They had been our first choice. Great towels. Alas, nothing lasts forever... and they were actual flour sacks.

Thank you so much for all your opinions. I was going to use them for embroidery but I guess I better use them for drying things. They sound like they will be great for chrystal. Thank you so much I knew my Cute family would come through with an answer.

I do. Aunt Martha's are great as are any you can find from Dunroven House.

Did a quality check on flour sack towels a while back. Most are awful (Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Michaels, etc). Went to a craft store that had the old Aunt Martha's Transfer Patterns and they had some better quality ones. Google "Aunt Martha's Old Fashion Flour Sack Towels". They are more expensive, but worth the price. Did redwork machine embroidery on they and they turned out well (always pre-shrink 100% cotton).

can this fabric be purchased by the yard? If so, if you have a link, would you please share?

Absolutely!! They make great cloths for drying glasses without lint or spots (both the drinking and the wearing types). My mom has always used flower sack dish towels for the dishes. I use them for wrapping up fresh bread out of the oven and such to keep it covered, as well as putting a light weight towel over bread as it is rising.

wow this is a good question thanks darmoola

I have many that I still use. Most are over 50 years old, and some of them came from real flour sacks are that dated to before 1940. I use ones that are very old for the Christmas dished and silver. They are over 100 years old. Great grandma started the holiday towel idea and I have stuck with it.(I even have her Holiday dishes.) The towels are fabulous even after over a century. I even have sugar sacks and flour sacks in the cedar chest that have not even been unseamed and made into towels. My late mother-in-law gave them to me 25 years ago for safe keeping. lol

3 comments

by starlizard 04 Feb 2012

I'm glad I'm not the only one that hangs onto stuff that's over twice my age. LOL!

by pldc 04 Feb 2012

wow that's awesome. a real treasure!

by free3wil 05 Feb 2012

I had some fabric diapers that I used for about that long....finlly got so threadbare that you could shoot peas thru them, so had to send them to the stash for dusting cloths....still work great!

I, also, usually use regular kitchen towels but the last pack of flour sack towels I purchased was from Walmart.

I didn't know flour sack towels still existed. I wonder if I could find them here in Canada?

4 comments

by pldc 04 Feb 2012

I wonder that too?

by spoolies 05 Feb 2012

I live in Newmarket, Ontario and I found them in Walmart.

by sewbadly 05 Feb 2012

The are at our WalMart in the states... but, I don't know the brand.

by darmoola 05 Feb 2012

I have a Wal-Mart nearby but I purchased mine from Meijers.

OMGoodness!! I just came back here and found out what I've been missing. Maybe I should give them a chance to show their value.
Thanks to everyone for those ideas and thanks to darmoola for asking the question in the first place.
AlmaG.

Hopefully, a better link to a nice flour sack tutorial.

I'm not fond of them but have friends that won't use anything else. Why, I ask them and get the same answer-they are lint free, dry in hours, and are very absorbent. They are nice for RW types of designs, but I wash and machine dry first as they shrink a lot.

Forgot to add that yes they don't seem worth wasting an embroidery design but I have done lots of them with a simple redwork style design and added a band or ruffle of gingham fabric to match the thread color of the design to the bottoms and sold them out ahead of other towels at craft shows.

The greatest thing about the flour sack towels is that they are "lint" free so they are wonderful for drying glasses,wine goblets,etc. They are the only towel my Grandma and my Mom will use because of this.

when that is what you grew up using, habits are hard to change. The bigger the better. LOL

The last ones I bought like that , I use for pressing clothes and various other things but not as dishtowels. They are good for many things and if you remember that you have them on hand, you will find many uses for them!

I have some nice ones that I bought at a home/hardware store in WI. They are a large square. I use one to cover my KitchenAide stand mixer when I whip cream so the cream doesn't splatter the wall. I also use one to put my torilla's in when I heat them in the microwave. I still haven't made a torilla warmer even though I have all the material to make them. Mine are similar to what my Grandma always used to dry dishes. She passed in 1981 and the last of the ones I inherited from her were worn out.

Lori

If you think the towels are too big, I saw this on Sew Forum. I have not tried it, but they are super cute.

2 comments

by lilylady 04 Feb 2012

error?

by bowlds 04 Feb 2012

I'm on a roll today!
http://www.sharimariecreations.co... has some tutorials and one is the flour sack towels.

I bought a couple of packs of five at Walmart in AZ in 2010 and was really disappointed when I arrived back in South Australia to find them large and square without any substance to them. We'd call them muslin here but you might call them more like a cheesecloth fabric. They looked and felt like new-born baby swaddling rugs than tea-towels.
I might eventually double them, cut them in halves and use them as dish washcloths, but they'd annoy me to distraction trying to use them as tea-towels.
I can't think of any other use for them. I'd sure like some good ideas.
AlmaG.

Yes I will just use it for regular kitchen towels because they are just to thin to embroider on. Hugs Marie

I agree that the name is all wrong for these.They are just a tad thicker than cheesecloth and not worth the effort to embroider on. My late MIL grew up on a farm, so there were still pillowcases and things made with them in the house. Even after a million years (lol) of washing, they were still thicker than those things at the store. Now, JoAnn Fabrics has some dish towels with the side stripes that seem to be like the ones I used to hand embroider.
Jo

They do not look like flour sacks of years ago. I saw them at Sams and they look too "airy", but should do well for drying dishes. I would wash them first as they will shrink. Betty