Is there anything interesting that can be done with old towels?

Okay, it's more than just towels. I have a zillion* washcloths, and hand towels as well. Even using them as dust cloths isn't really going to make much of a dent, and it seems a shame to just let them sit there in the linen closet, forlorn and abandoned.

I hate throwing things away, when they still have usefulness left. No, I'm not going to take them to a shelter, nor to Goodwill (who will wait until I'm gone to throw them away).

*Yes, zillion is indeed a number of indeterminate size.

Potholders! Over the head baby bibs (hand towels are a perfect size for the bibs)

I already knew about the baby bibs, but potholders are an excellent idea. Hand towels are excellent for baby bibs, but not in the condition mine are. Pot holders, on the other hand, are forever useful, and they can be cut up, and layered in multiples, as well. I even have some seam binding that might prove useful...

Cut them into half an inch width strips, and crochet to make a bath mat, is what I would do with old towels. Or even to weave with them would be fun. It’s a bit of work, I know though...

I made some potholders from an old towel not too long ago. They are fairly ugly but very useful and pliable in a way that many modern potholders are not. I used three layers, stitched through them corner to corner (like an X) and then bound them.

Along the lines of where Yamanekotel is going in #4: OK, what about making rugs with them if a different way? I was just in a quilt shop yesterday and looking a pattern that they are selling to make rugs from jelly-roll fabrics. They use a strip of fabric with a strip of batting. They bring in each side, layers together, to the center and then fold in half and sew zigzag down the middle. When you have enough length, you start in the middle and sew the strip to itself as you coil it around (like a braided rug). Note: One does need to join endless strips together before all the folding and stitching....)

Why couldn't one do that with strips of toweling without the batting? It would use up a fair amount of towels. I think weaving and crocheting the strips an interesting idea but it seems to me that the raw edges of terry cloth sheds too much.

>5 avaland: Briefly; you are correct on terry cloth being unsuitable for braided rugs, specifically because they won't hold up, in just the way you suggest. I used to make braided rugs from old rags, back in my long vanished youth, and the rules were always cotton, or linen, preferably 100% cotton or linen. Wool tends to be hard to work with, and all the polyesters and blends were very unpredictable as to holding their shape.

I wonder what I did with my old rugs, now...

I keep telling my husband that I'm going to take his old, brown, terry-cloth robe, which is worn so badly at the back of the neck and elbows to be almost nonexistent, and make it into a pillow. Of course, I have said the same of a old favorite, denim-colored, chenille sweater of mine. I suspect it's all just a ruse to keep the things around.

Lynda, what did you decide to do with the old towels? I was thinking that I also donated a lot of "older," slightly used towels to a local charity a few years back (we had a ton of towels—I think they were secretly multiplying in the closets).

>8 avaland: I had only just recently started thinking about this again. Apparently, you caught the drift of my brain gearing up, all the way over on that other coast. I'm planning on sorting through them, and then donating things that aren't in too bad a condition to the local shelter, which is always in need. I have some random sheets, and some lap blankets, that can also go.

We accumulate so much debris over life, and I'm really trying to reduce it all. Except for the Carnival glass, and my tea sets, and all the antiques...

MaggieO, who has been a member of this group, collects tea pots. A friend bought me a tea set for some occasion or another. She is actually the one into that, not me. Yet, the set sits on the bottom shelf of my rather large curio cabinet, because I don’t know what else to do with it! (and I fear she might visit and ask after it!)

>10 avaland: I have two tea sets. One (of Chinese origin) is about 150, and the other dates from USSR days (my guess is 1930 to 1950). It's from the Lomonosov (http://www.lomonosov-russia.com/) porcelain makers, and is beautiful. The Chinese one is lovely, but not in competition for the Lomonosov. The Chinese one may end up as a donation for the next charity auction. The other I'll keep forever.

I do have a few tea pots as well, but they're mostly taking up space.

Here are two of my favorites:





First is a green peacock bowl, and the second is the same thing in white (it's hard to see, in the photo).

I'm usually careful in giving gifts, myself. I prefer giving what I think someone *wants*, instead of what *I* want. :-}

Gorgeous!! Not your average tea set collection!! Yes, I'm also careful with gift-giving (do unto others as....)

Sorry - not posted for some time - a friend says she uses them for floor cloths and I have cut some up to use as foot towels.

>13 justmum: I have a mental image of "skating" across wood floors on these, polishing them up (the floors, not the cloths).

14 yeah I can remember that also - great fun doing a jive or twist on a floor cloth!

I just bought the hubby a new bathrobe to replace the ancient, somewhat tattered terry cloth one. I have promised to salvage and reuse what terry I could from it. Thinking of making a pillow, one side his robe, the other side the best part of what remains of a demin-colored chenille sweater I wore when we were dating. It's possible there might be enough terry leftover for more potholders, LOL