A month ago, challenged by Hip Mountain Mama, I claimed in the name of One Small Change to live one month without paper towels. And we have successfully made it through the month of January without using a single paper towel. It was not as hard as I would have thought, but cutting out this paper from our lives required some creativity and my sewing machine.

There are near a million different uses for disposable paper towels in our home with two toddlers. Juice spills, sticky faces, raw meat on the counter top, that kimchee spill in the back of the fridge, window smears, and cleaning out my favorite cast-iron fry pan. With so many really messy messes I needed to get sewing and create some eco-friendly solutions for our family.

To take the place of paper towels in our home, I came up with: linen table napkins, or “wipe-offs” as we say in toddler-speak, washies in bright colors, and repurposed cloth dinner napkins for cleaning and oiling my cast-iron-ware.

I love the hefty feel of 100% linen napkins. I expect that they are going to get greasy, stained, messy, and well, otherwise used. So, I use a thicker quality, taupe colored fabric and don’t worry about the extra price, because well, we are saving 100’s of paper napkins from a dreary after-life in a land-fill. Besides, untarnished linen pieces are salvaged later for lavender pouches, doll clothing, perhaps embroidered pockets on an advent calendar, or something else crafty. Dirty napkins in our home get tossed in the washer and dryer. If company is coming to dine I iron them. If it is just us at the Sunday breakfast table, I don’t care about the wrinkles. In fact, wrinkled napkins actually catch more toddler messes. You can see my linen napkin tutorial here to start stitching your own.

I love cooking on my cast-iron skillet, but it needs special attention during the clean-up process. No soak in a soapy sink please! Usually a paper towel dusts off any food particles, and then I re-heat the pan slightly and rub some fresh olive oil over seasoned surfaces…and then the oily paper towel goes in the trash. And what about draining bacon? What could take the place of paper towels to absorb the extra grease from our family breakfast favorite? Well, inexpensive cloth napkins that weren’t soft and like linen stepped up to this messy job. I don’t mind if these get stained and a thrift store wire basket holds the oily cloths until wash time.

As for cleaning, I use miracle cloths. These cloths really save a ton of paper towels, cleaning solutions, (use only water to wipe waxy crayon off the wall), and time. Stick them in the bottom of a Swiffer sweeper and use them to mop  floors. Dipped in a tad of white vinegar, miracle cloths clean mirrors and glass surfaces really well. Toss them in the washer and dryer to get them clean. Google these to find out where to purchase them.

With two toddlers in the house, someone is always sticky. We used to use wet paper towels to clean messy faces after dinner, but now, we use hand-made “washies” to wipe away stickiness. (Can you ever wipe away stickiness? “Sticky” seems like a perpetual state of being when you are a toddler.) The terry cloth picks up everything from popsicle drips to grapefruit juice on the counter top. Simply rinse it and wring it out well at the end of the day, hang it to air dry, and then toss it in the laundry in the morning before grabbing a fresh one for the day.

I repurposed a thrifted bath towel and created custom seam binding tape to make very plush cloths in just the right size. Here is how you can simply create your own set in no time. (A note: The directions below include how to create bias tape and how to miter corners. If you already are an experienced sewer, you’ll be able to whip these up in no time.)

Need:

• 1 terry cloth bath towel (or yardage)
  
• 1 yrd coordinating cotton fabric (light weight woven)
• fabric scissors
• iron
• sewing machine
• measuring tape
• coordinating thread
• straight pins

How To:

Create Single Fold Bias Tape

1. Prewash, dry, and iron cotton fabric yardage.

To piece together a longer strip of tape…

Approximately 1 yard is needed for this project.  *And presto! You have custom bias tape for any project!*

Cut Terry Cloth Fabric

11. Prewash and dry the towel. (If it is thrifted find, wash it in hot water.) Measure and cut a 7 1/2″ X 7 1/2″ square of terry cloth. (Make this smaller or larger to your liking.)

Sew Bias Tape to Washie with Mitered Corners

12. Open bias tape and with right sides of bias tape and terry cloth together, start 1″ away from a terry cloth corner and align raw edges and pin. Begin sewing a straight stitch1/2″ away from the beginning edge of the bias tape, back stitching at the beginning. Stop 1/2″ before the corner of the terry cloth and back stitch to finish. Remove work from the machine.

13. Fold bias tape “away” from the next edge of the piece. Finger press in place.

14. Keep this first fold in place and fold the tape “toward” the next edge of the piece. Right sides of tape and terry should be together, the fold should be flush with the edge you just sewed, and the raw edges of the tape and terry should align along the edge you are to sew next. Pin in place.

15. Machine stitch the next side, back stitching at the beginning, and stopping 1/2″ before the corner of the terry cloth, back stitching at the end.

16. Remove piece from the machine, and repeat steps (13-15) to complete the remaining corners. Stop stitching 1/2″ before reaching the beginning of the bias tape.

17. Fold down 1/2″ of raw edge of the beginning bias tape already attached, wrong side to wrong side, and finger press. Place bias tape to be stitched over this and machine stitch overlapping the tape 1/2″ back stitching at the end. Remove piece from machine and snip off excess tape.

18. Fold bias tape to the back of the piece, arrange mitered corners on back side, pin and then press both sides. Top stitch around the inner edge of the bias tape on the back side using a 3/8″ seam allowance.

19. Dampen with water, and wipe up any sticky mess in a jiffy.

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So there you have it…a month in review without paper towels. They are convenient. Though it was not too much of an imposition to do without. I am still on the fence about whether or not we should do away with them for good. My feeling is to do away with them so we aren’t tempted! Money saved I say!

Apologies for such a l-o-n-g post, but I hope someone out there finds this little how-to useful. Up for February…Ziploc elimination. Check back here in a month for the round-up and check out Hip Mountain Mama if you’d like to join in this challenge and make One Small Change to make your home a bit greener.