Can we talk about tea towels?

[bod111]

I cannot believe I am asking this. This is a laughably luxury problem. I recently replaced my totally gross ancient tea towels with new ones following an attempt to lift the scummy slummy vibes in the kitchen. All my new tea towels - variety bought from different places, Habitat, local haberdasher, supermarkets have all shrunk to about half their original size within - like - about a month. Any advice much appreciated.

I love this - lots on the go for no discernible reason. That’s us. Oh and descriptions of favourite ones. 👌

Kitchen aid tea towels from Costco are amazing. Nice and big and don't shrink.
Nothing worse than a tiny shrunken tea towel!

I don’t have loads like you but I seem to be washing one or two a day. I change them at Christmas for my lovely Christmas 🎄 tea towels and get a genuine thrill when it’s time to get them out of the cupboard.

https://www.ulsterweavers.com
Beautiful non-shrinking tea towels
Usually have 25% off sales

Tea towels that don’t absorb water are an absolute pet hate of mine, ones that shrink would be even more infuriating. I got some recently from a second hand house clearance shop and there’s one that’s like a holy grail tea towel. It has the name on it. I’ll go look for you.

Williams Sonoma https://www.amazon.co.uk/Williams-Sonoma-Classic-Stripe-Kitchen-Towels/dp/B088QQXB9Z

its a US brand but it’s such an obviously good quality item that it might be worth the expense.

Oh, yes, please! Another tea towel lover here. I have a rather nice collection; some are ‘using’ tea towels and others are ‘stunt’ tea towels ie for hanging up on my dresser and cupboards etc. Woe betide anyone who uses these! I look out for vintage pure linen towels in charity shops but I occasionally treat myself to a new one from the Radical Tea Towel Company. I do find that linen towels are the best for actually drying dishes but the others are great for lifting my spirits. Simple pleasures and all that.

I only buy those too. I have dozens. I only like mainly white tea towels.

'Using' tea towels and 'stunt' tea towels. Genius choice of the word 'stunt'! 😂
Hey there, I'm your stunt tea towel, I do the sequined trapeze work not the mucky stuff. 💃

https://samuellamont.com/collections/poli-dri

Poli-dry. I've had a dozen of them for 8+ years & they are still going strong.

I regularly buy souvenir tea towels or get given them. Me and my sister have a thing of buying eachother a tea towel when we go away or visit somewhere interesting. Souvenir ones, as long as you visit a quality attraction, are usually good quality. I’ve got loads from kids’ schools with their hand print or scribble, they usually go under the cat’s water fountain. I avoid ones with white/pale background

others are ‘stunt’ tea towels @ThePieceHall

😂Love this!

I like these from Amazon:

https://amzn.eu/d/09SkMMMA

I do have some of my mum's old ones which are great.

As I have a dishwasher I rarely need a tea towel, so I mainly use them for draping down my front when I eat in front of the TV!

Thanks for that, have just ordered the wedding anniversary one for SIL coming up. One or two others from the bargain bucket might have fallen in the basket for me too. I also have stunt towels.

I buy those for in the caravan as they are the best for drying and wash well. I don't mind a fancy teatowel in the house as I rarely use them but for proper drying up these are the best

Try TK Maxx, they often have kitchen aid ones which wash well for me

waffle fabric and embroidery shrink when washing but you can sort of stretch them before hanging up to dry.

we have a lot of tea towels and they cover lots of jobs in the kitchen (don't use paper kitchen roll).
we like to replenish with souvenir towels on holiday but look for 100& cotton or linen.

My french linen tea towels were at the top of the strict tea towel hierarchy in our house and then a friend gave me a couple of Georg Jensen linen tea towels and they really are special. If guests are helping wash up those are the tea towels I want to show off !

Pure cotton or linen is brilliant, but I recently bought some microfiber, which is really good and dries quickly, so no more soggy tea towels.
Ones i used to hate and do not know if still made are the terry towelling ones. They used to have great big pulls in them plus moult over your china. no thanks

Loving the stunt tea towel, we did have a few but after a recent cull of the lowest grade, they have all been marked down into Cat 1.
Need another holiday to replenish the stunt team!

These bad boys are the dogs. Yes, I have expensive taste
https://www.fortnumandmason.com/fortnum-s-waffle-tea-towel-indigo

The best thing about having our kitchen extended from the cubby hole it was to a normal sized one, is the fact I had enough drawers to have one solely for tea towels. I like to change them often and I still get a little thrill every time I get a new one out.

🥰

No! Why do so many tea towels so often have a white background? They end up greying and old looking well before they wear out. To make you replace them, that’s why.

Of course am well aware the style linked is very traditional from the days of mass laundries and boil washes (I have watched Bridgerton) but still 😂

Now any tea towel that is used for whirling salad leaves is a proper, actual stunt towel.

JustPlainStanfreyPock

As the linen ones get very thin with age they are good to use as pressing cloths for my sewing, and for drying salad leaves by wrapping them in the cloth and whizzing them round my head in the garden. Much more fun than a salad spinner.

If I tried that I’d probably end up wearing the salad 😀