Linen towels for travel

[DeBru]

Thanks for the recommendations @willo I hadn't heard of fabrics-store.com they have lots to choose from.

Also, my linen towel from an Etsy seller in Turkey finally arrived and it's just lovely. Well worth the wait.

[Kirri]

The best quality and selection for linen that I know of is from fabrics-store.com. (Yes, I'm nerdy enough that I hand-sew historical re-enactment garments, which is the community from which I heard of this company.)

Thank you this recommendation. I love to sew and could use more towels, etc, so will have a look at fabrics-store.com.

Just curious: Do you know of anywhere to get bamboo fabric? I use bamboo sheets but they wear out fairly fast and are so expensive. I'd like to make my own. I also want bamboo knit for clothing but haven't found that anywhere either.

How wonderful that you make historical costumes! I've never done it but I follow a number of blogs of people who do, in particular the amazing Dreamstress, from New Zealand.

[Mausermama]

With coupons/sales, the cheapest source from which I've gotten linen is fabric.com. They are more like a super-sized Joanne's fabric store--selling everything, much of it typical quality, but they are so big that they have some of everything.



--willo

I just ordered two different linen fabrics to sew into towels. Thank you so much for the suggestion! One is a lavender color, and the other is a more natural taupe/greenish color. I can hardly wait for them to get here! I'm anticipating using one as my beach towel, as my current towel is bulky and heavy.

[The Squire of Gothos]

I just bought one of these:
Amazon.com - 100% Pure Flax Linen Bath Towel 25"x 52" -

along side one of these:
Amazon.com - Cacala 100% Cotton Pestemal Turkish Bath Towel, 37 x 70", Silver Grey - Bath Towels

Thought it might be nice to have side by side comparison since all my bath towels were totally shot anyway.....

Will let you know how they stack up....

[ijustdontknow]

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd share for those still seeking options.

I ordered 2 waffle weave 100% linen washcloths from Fog Linen Pod | Shop Fog Linen

We haven't used them yet and just washed them for the first time. They were accidentally thrown into the dryer and shrunk by about 20%, but they are so soft now. Other than the shrinkage, they appear to be of very high quality material and workmanship.

[sarahlin]

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd share for those still seeking options.

I ordered 2 waffle weave 100% linen washcloths from Fog Linen Pod | Shop Fog Linen

We haven't used them yet and just washed them for the first time. They were accidentally thrown into the dryer and shrunk by about 20%, but they are so soft now. Other than the shrinkage, they appear to be of very high quality material and workmanship.

Once wet, they should return to normal size. I have some linen washcloths from Evan Healy that do the same.

[willo]

Just curious: Do you know of anywhere to get bamboo fabric? I use bamboo sheets but they wear out fairly fast and are so expensive. I'd like to make my own. I also want bamboo knit for clothing but haven't found that anywhere either.

How wonderful that you make historical costumes! I've never done it but I follow a number of blogs of people who do, in particular the amazing Dreamstress, from New Zealand.

Kirri--

I didn't see this until recently when I was dreaming of new Tom Bihn bags and came by the site for a visit.

I've bought silk fabric yardage from Dharma Trading Co in the past, and they have bamboo. I've not bought any rayon yardage, but my kids LOVED the bamboo socks Dharma sells for dyeing.
Bamboo Rayon Fabrics

Dharma is mostly a supplier for tie dyers and fabric artists, but they're an awesome resource for anyone who loves silk. They've got the best prices for silk that I've found and their customer service is good and solid. They are more eco-conscious than slick in their presentation, but everything (liquids, fabrics, chemical powders) arrives safely and in good condition.

And my historical sewing is nothing like the fabulous work of the great seamstresses one finds online. I'm proud of my small hand stitches, but I mostly sew early period garments made up with lots of straight seams.

--willo

[missilebird]

After Ceepee has introduced me to this kind of towles @fedlet has linked, I use thouse too. Love them for all that they are: large but very packable, fast drying and so chearfull in colors.
I can even see me wearing one as a big scalf should I get cold and have nothing else to layer at hand. (I always ALWAYS) have a towle AND know where it is ;-)

Ilkyway

Ilkyway, just curious if you have tried these as scarves, because my first thought upon clicking the link was 'Ooh, those would make great scarves!' Always good to have multipurpose items when traveling, I think.

[ThomGault]

Sorry to bring back this old thread...but I was wondering if anyone has found any good, economical US sources for linen towels (and hopefully matching washcloths)? There are just so many options, its confounding. Is the $60 towel from Outlier (which a few sources have recommended) both good quality and good price for the product?

[Cristina]

Linen towels for travel

Linen towels are amazing and you can get them in various Etsy shops, most of which will be based in Lithuania. I have several in various sizes from Linen World on Etsy and I do take at least one on holiday with me. They dry fast and are nice to use. I have waffle weave and plain, in sizes from kitchen towel (makes a good hair towel!) to bath sheet (for at home every day). I wouldn't be without them now.

The shop I have used:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LinenWorld

The categorisation is not perfect, as there are some great kitchen towels in the bathroom towel section.

My favourite one: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/2109...ned-pre-washed

But I also love the waffle weave in the bath sheet size and use the waffle weave as my main towels: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/2364...owel-in-waffle

Hope this helps! There are other linen shops too, this is just the one I use.

[Mausermama]

Sorry to bring back this old thread...but I was wondering if anyone has found any good, economical US sources for linen towels (and hopefully matching washcloths)? There are just so many options, its confounding. Is the $60 towel from Outlier (which a few sources have recommended) both good quality and good price for the product?

I ended up purchasing 100% linen fabric from fabric.com and sewed up my own. I use it every day. I have another length of fabric that I want to do up as well. I just need to get the time to do it. It was very easy to do. It's all just straight seams along with the four mitered corners. I watched a YouTube tutorial on how to sew up the corners and was off. All told I believe it took me less than an hour from start to finish. I invested perhaps $25.00 in material (whatever it was to get the free shipping), and when I've got the other length sewn up, I'll have two towels to hold me for years to come.

ETA: Here's a link if you're interested: https://www.fabric.com/find?fiber-co...archText=Linen

[Walker]

Wow, those prints, are pretty, @mausermama!

I bought a linen towel set (1 bath and 2 hand towels) off Amazon for about $25 (it was on sale) - made in Lithuania. I am happy with them.

So when I saw a piece of remnant 100% linen, made in the USA (per the label) in the clearance bin at my local Joann Fabric store, I bought it. I paid around $25, including tax (the store had a 50% sale on everything, including clearance) for 6-1/2 or so yards of cloth - 56 inches wide. I made 6 towels out of it. I did not sew/ trim the selvedge edges.

However, when I washed the towels I "made", the amount of lint generated in the washing machine and dryer was unbelievable. I literally had to clean the lint off the washing machine - it was a LOT. I washed/ dried the 6 towels 3x before using them. The amount of lint decreased each time, the cloth also got softer.

The linen towels I bought off Amazon still generate lint so, I am careful to NOT wash them with other items that are lint magnets.

The lint they generate decreases each time I wash/ dry them. But I am not sure that the lint will ever go away.

Still, I do like my linen towels, now that I got used to them. They dry fast, so they do not get that damp smell that the regular thick towels do.

I must, however, say I do appreciate the feel of thick towels, whenever I get to use them (when I have reason to stay at a hotel).

As for carrying a linen towel during travels, I do bring my 3 linen handtowels on trips, depending on where I am going and where I stay.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

[Mausermama]

Yes, those florals are gorgeous, @Walker. I only purchased solid colors (lavender and natural).

Before I sewed the edges, I "trued" the fabric by pulling on a thread along each edge. Following the thread that was pulled, I trimmed the fabric. Once everything was nice and square, I rolled the edges, pressing them with my iron and then sewed the seams and corners.

Perhaps because of that, I really haven't had much lint at all? Linen fabric has a wider weave than many others because of the nature of the bast fibers. As a result it tends to ravel quite easily. I only noticed a lot of lint when I washed my initial fabric to pre-shrink it before I started the sewing. I love how quickly my towel dries. I also feel that it does an overall better job of drying me off than my thick "hotel cotton" towels.

[BWeaves]

There's 2 kinds of linen: Line and tow (pronounced like "toe").

Linen grows as the flax plant and is about 1 yard tall. The flax plant is pulled up by its roots and laid down to ret in the wet grass or submerged in running water for several weeks. Ret is a nice word for rot. Then the stalks are propped up to dry. Once dry, the stalks are scutched (scraped with a wooden sword) to get the rotted outside "bark" off of the inner fibers. Then the 1 yard long fibers are hackled (combed) to remove all the short fibers.

When the flax is spun into yarn it is called linen. Lin seeds come from the flax plant. Linseed oil comes from squishing lin seeds.

The 1 yard long fibers are called line linen.
The short fibers (1 to 2 inches or less) that are combed out are called tow linen.

Line linen looks like long blond hair, which is why princesses in fairy tales always had long flaxen locks.
Little children with short blond hair are called tow headed, because their hair looks like tow linen.

The point to all this is:

If your linen fabric is woven from line linen it will never have lint. This is what you want for drying glassware and dishes, and yourself.

If your linen fabric is woven from tow linen it will shed like a dog. This is what you make burlap sacks out of.

Tow linen is cheap for a reason. Line linen is expensive. There is a considerable difference. Line linen has fibers that are 1 yard long, and so will never work their way out of the fabric or shed. Tow linen is very short, like one inch or less, and will work its way out of your fabric every time its washed, and even when you try to dry something, the lint will stick to everything.

I'm a hand weaver, and I've only woven with tow once, and never again. My entire washing machine and dryer was covered in shredded tow. Every towel I've woven from line linen is perfect from day one. No lint ever. Line linen is worth the extra expense.

Also, linen can be wetspun or dryspun. Spinning the flax wet will slick down the fibers and make a smooth linen yarn. Spinning the flax dry means the ends stick out and you get a fuzzy, rough looking yarn. I prefer wet spun linen. Dry spun means the fibers in tow will definitely shed.

I love, love, love my line linen towels. They suck up moisture better than any cotton towel and they dry quickly. After using linen towels, cotton towels just feel like they move water around as opposed to sucking it up and actually drying things.

[Cristina]

Thanks, how interesting to know where tow-headed and flaxen-haired came from!

Other than price, how can one tell if linen is line or tow, when buying online? I have never seen that distinction before.

I have had a bit of lint off of this one (I think it did settle down after 4 washes or so)
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/5045...n-natural-grey

But I never had any off of these ones:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/2095...wel-mint-green
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/2109...ned-pre-washed

I love my linen towels, they are wonderful to use and since I usually line-dry my laundry I am grateful for their quick drying properties.