Your Ideal Tea-Towel?

[SublimeStitcher]

I, like you, have for years been on a quest for the perfect tea-towel. I'm finally giving up and am planning on having them manufactured especially for me and you. This may take a while, but tell me: what do you need in a tea-towel? My thinking is: not too big, not too little, easy-to-stitch, not too lightweight...am I right? I know a lot of you have said how much you like the tea-towels in the Stitch-It Kit. Is that your most favoritest?

The floursacks are too big, and too wrinkly. The ones in craft stores have the aida/meshy area for cross-stitching that I don't need. Then there are those decorative, gossamer-light styles that are really just decorative.  The ones I carry on the site now are an improvement on floursack towels (and tell me what you think of those if you have one), but still not ideal. At least, not my ideal.

So when you close your eyes real hard and dream of tea-towels, what to you envision? I plan on building the better tea-towel, and wanna hear from you.!
luv,
Jenny

ps. more questions like this to come!

[BabyPop]

It does seem, so far, that the ones that come with the Stitch-It kit are indeed the best. I went through those and bought some at Target, which totally suck. They are way too big, the mesh is too loose, and it's too stretchy (not to mention wrinkly.) I had to use interfacing on them and feel as though you should NOT have to use interfacing on flour sack/tea towels.

I think this is a big reason I've been so lax on finishing projects - my materials suck! And I bought TWO large packets of them thinking they were pretty inexpensive and right for what I needed. May be time to try to sell them on ebay!

I also bought a similar package at Wal-Mart but I have not tried those yet. I have also heard of blanks on some other sites (mentioned in the questions here), but haven't ordered any since I already have so many that I haven't used yet.

So short answer: not too big! Not too flimsy! Not too stretchy!

[rectangel]

Good tea towels are mysterious.  You often can't tell the good ones from the bad until you wash them. 

My big stipulations for a "good tea towel" is that they come out of the dryer unwrinkled and that they are not linty in anyway but still absorbent.

The ones in that came in my stitch it kit are a little too light for my tastes.

Thanks for checking into this!

[Early Bird Special]

Yes, I agree, I just will not buy tea towels from a store anymore.  They just aren't right.  The towels in the stitch-it kit were good, but I think they were a tad bit stiff.  Still something wasn't just perfect and made me think, 'Sweet Jebus, where have these been all my stitching life?'  You'll come up with something fabulous dear, you always do.   

[uplate6674]

I LOVED the towels in the Stitch-It kit. I have some of the waffle towels from SS and they're OK, but I prefer a smooth towel.

[Ginamonster]

I actually like the texture of a flour sack towel (or more so the size...), but I haven't really figured out what a tea towel is for so...I mean, they are so small! BUT if those are what you are suposed to use if you have a leaky teapot, then bring em on because um, I need more than what came in my kit. And, of course I will want them embroidered.

[SublimeStitcher]

Why am I not surprised you all would have strong opinions about tea-towels?

Gosh, I may enlist a few of you as Sublime Stitching field testers and send you some samples. Would some of you be willing to do that?

Personally, I like these towels to hang by my sink to dry my hands. I agree, the Stitch-It Kit ones are a wee bit lighter than my ideal, and the waffle ones I stock aren't the best. I'm working on it! And sure do appreciate the help. It's so much easier to run a company when you just listen to what the stitching people want. :X

[Ginamonster]

I would be thrilled. squealing, wiggling, jumping up and down like some sort of freak thrilled.

[GatsbyGirl]

I'm jumping on the bandwagon that the ones in the Stitch Kit aren't absorbent enough to wipe a counter or my hands on. However, they're perfect for putting in a basket with some bread or covering a plate of cookies.

Maybe we're asking for them to do too much? It's like how you don't expect the apron you cook in to double as a hostessing apron as well.

Still, smooth and not too lack are definitely my vote.

[IamSusie]

I prefer the dishtowels that are soft, but make of a sturdier cotton weave.  I find that all dishtowels get better and more absorbant with repeated washings. 

I have strong towel opinions and in our family we don't use paper napkins so we tend to get lots of use out of our dishtowels and cloth napkins.

I'd love to test drive dishtowels!