Minimize This!: Unpaper Towels

A few months ago I made the announcement to my husband that I would no longer be purchasing paper towels, and that the roll of paper towels sitting on our kitchen counter-top would be the last paper towels in our home. He looked at me in confusion, and skepticism, quite probably wondering why I was suddenly waging war against the paper towels, but he didn't argue with me. Unfortunately, I don't recall precise date in which I made my declaration, though I know for certain that it's been at least six months since we have had paper towels in our home, and I have yet to have one of those moments in which I said, "I wish I had a paper towel!"

The decision to banish paper towels from our home was based on a number of factors, the foremost being cost. Let's do some quick and simple math: If your household goes through two rolls of paper towels a week, and you pay $1 per roll, over the course of the year that's $104 spent on paper towels alone! I know I can think of far better uses for that $104/year than buying paper towels!! Other factors included the fact that it would decrease the amount of trash that we have each week, and that it is simply more eco-friendly to use a reusable item rather than a disposable one.

So what do we use in place of paper towels? We use Unpaper Towels!! Okay, so honestly, they're just glorified rags, but they serve a specific purpose, and thusly need a name. If you're unable to make your own as shown below, you could always use old washcloths or rags to serve similarly.

Unpaper Towel Tutorial

My Unpaper Towels began their lives as a bath towel, and a pair of flannel pajama pants. The towel was getting rather frayed, and the pajamas had ripped and were no longer wearable. I like the absorbency of the terry cloth, and the additional bulk of the flannel, but you really could use just about any scrap fabric that you have laying around.

To begin, I made a template out of a piece of newsprint. My template measured 10.5" x 10.5". With a 1/4" seam allowance this would result in an Unpaper Towel that was roughly 10" x 10". You could make them larger or smaller, depending on your preference.

For the flannel pieces, I began but cutting off all the seams from the pants, as closely as possible to the stitching so that I would have the largest pieces of flat fabric that the pants would yield. The thin strips from the seams, I put into my waste pile (and later used to stuff my daughter's Tooth Fairy Pillow), and the elastic waistband went into my scrap bin.

Step 1: Pin the paper template to the fabric. Trim the fabric so that it is the same size as your paper template.

To make things easier, I cut the towel along the decorative edge, so I was left with a rectangle of terry cloth without the fancy stitchery. (See below)

Step 2: Repeat Step 1 with your terry cloth piece. When you're finished, you should have two pieces of fabric that are the same size.

I was able to get six 10.5" x 10.5" pieces out of each of my fabrics.

I only had small scraps of each remaining. I added these scraps to my box of random scraps, you never know when they may come in handy.

Step 3: Place your fabric wrong sides together, and using a 1/4" seam allowance, stitch down the first edge.

Showing that the wrong sides are together.

Step 4: When you reach the corner of the fabric on the first side, lift your presser foot, and turn the fabric at a 90 degree angle, and continue stitching down the next side. Repeat once more so that you have three sides fully seamed.

Step 5: Continue stitching the last side as in Step 4, but leave a few inches of the fourth side unsewn (for turning right side out). Remember to back-stitch to secure the end of the seam. Remove your Unpaper Towel from the sewing machine.

Step 6: Turn the cloth right side out, by pulling through the opening left in Step 5.

Your Unpaper Towel should now look like this.

Step 7: Tuck 1/4" of fabric in the unsewn hole back into the hole along the edge of the fabric.

Step 8: Keeping the edge still tucked, place it under your presser foot, and begin stitching using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Step 9: Continue top-stitching down the edge of the fabric to the corner.

Step 10: In the same manner as in Step 4, when you reach the corner of the fabric, lift the presser foot, turn the fabric 90 degrees, and continue stitching down the next side. Repeat until all four sides are top-stitched.

Step 11 (Optional - I did this to keep the fabric pieces held together more): When you reach the corner that you began with, turn the fabric 45 degrees, and stitch across the diagonal of the cloth to the opposite corner.