Flour sack towels are often confused for cheesecloth, kitchen towels or dishcloths. Whatever you think they are, though, they are so much more and have been around for a lot longer than you could possibly imagine.

Although the name suggests otherwise, these vintage towels are not made from sacks, but constructed of very thin threads of cotton. Thinner than dish towels and heavier than cheesecloth, they are extremely durable, shrink-resistant, easy to store and have a clean, simple look, making them highly functional.

Used for cooking, serving, cleaning and even crafting, they are embraced in homes and restaurants for their multitasking ability and are a high-quality basic supply everyone should invest in.

Understand what flour sack towels are and how to use them and you’ll save money, storage space and time by eliminating the need to choose between multiple products or items.

While the term may still conjure images of dusty, coarse rags, they are the exact opposite. Highly absorbent, lint-free and washing machine-friendly, these premium pure cotton towels are vastly superior to the decorative towels you’ll find at department stores.

Modeled after the thin woven cotton sacks that were used to pack grains and flour before being reused as towels, flour sack towels can be used just about anywhere around your home for polishing silverware and glasses, dusting and even cleaning windows.

Commonly referred to as flour sack dish towels, they are mostly used to dry dishes. What makes them so special compared to other commonly used household towels? Well, there are a number of differences. Flour sack dish towels are:

Significantly larger and longer than your standard kitchen towel, they range anywhere from 20 x 30 inches to 36 x 36 inches. Having more fabric to work with makes cleaning and drying tasks easier.

When you wipe a counter or window with a standard towel, it typically leaves lint behind, but not so when using flour sack kitchen towels. That means no pieces of fuzz on plates, cups, furniture or windows.

Drying dishes with kitchen flour sack towels is faster because the thin yarn and looser weave make them extra absorbent. Their absorbency makes them ideal for drying wet hands quickly, air drying delicate salad greens and preserving the freshness of herbs and vegetables, replacing paper towels.

The fine weave also allows the towel to act as a pseudo cheesecloth or strainer; broths and sauces can be strained through flour sack towels to clarify them.

The more these towels are used and washed, the softer they become. After a few years of use, you and your guests will be astonished at how soft they are.

Their length gives them a lovely draped look on any hook, and while commonly mistaken to be plain and white, you can easily find colored flour sack towels at places like our own Mary’s Kitchen Flour Sack Towels. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with sticking with white flour towels if that’s your thing, but stains show less on colored towels and if you plan on having them around for a while, more color can’t be a bad thing.

Used for jazzing up home décor or bringing some flair to the dinner table, these towels are hard not to notice.

Don’t let the name fool you, flour sack dish towels are used for more than just drying dishes or hands while running around a busy kitchen. They are an all-purpose item.

For flour sack towels that are kitchen specific, look no further than the flour sack tea towel.

Tea towels are the handy piece of cloth you may have seen draped over the shoulder of master chefs as they run throughout their kitchens, or perhaps your parents always had them nearby when you were a small child.

Though you’ll hear the word dish towels thrown out to describe tea towels, there is a slight difference. By definition, a tea towel is made up cotton or linen, while dish towels are sometimes made from terry cloth. Both are around the same size of a hand towel.

When it comes to the kitchen towels, flour sack tea towels are the real MVP. If ever there was a kitchen workhorse, this great towel is it. You already know that when it comes to materials, the flour sack is superior to just about every other material, which is why flour sack tea towels are among the most popular tea towel choices.

Do you hate dried water spots on your champagne flutes? There’s no better way to ensure a streak-free shine on your glassware than using a flour sack tea towel. Are you always bustling about the kitchen and need a one-size-fits-all item? These towels are the perfect companion for homemakers, bakers, chefs, caterers and foodies.

Look at just a few ways tea towels made of flour sack material can contribute to a kitchen. They can be used as:

• Potholders or oven mitts to handle hot dishes
• Covering for bread dough while it rises
• Aprons
• Drying racks to lay wet dishes on
• Stabilizers for cutting boards or mixing bowls
• Food liners in cases of serving chips and baked goods
• Drying dishes, wiping counters and general kitchen clean-up
• Napkins at dinner time
• Placemats to decorate the table for guests or even a casual night with the family

While tea towels have universal applications in a home and people continue to find new ways to harness their usefulness, there’s nothing quite like the elegance, warmth and personality custom tea towels can add to your home.

Flour sack dish towels are going to be a part of your home for a long time, so it only makes sense to make sure you’ll enjoy looking at them for years to come. There aren’t many household items that have such high levels of durability and functionality, and when you add your own special touch to them, they will become a part of your family.

Available in a variety of colors and patterns, you can easily find towels that match your style and decorating scheme, but it’s up to you if you want to actually use them or simply use them as decorative flour sack towels for display throughout your home.

How else can having personalized tea towels be useful?

Flour sack towels make an excellent canvas for painting and cross stitching. Painted, stitched and embroidered flour sack towels can be used as wall art. Fun patterned sack towels can add a little something special to plain household items like mason jars, baskets or empty picture frames.

Newlyweds can create a lasting impression on any guests visiting their home, but can also impress each other. Looking at these towels daily will remind them of their special day.

They also are a great way to celebrate new babies in the home. You can have a personalized towel for each child, as they are ideal for wrapping children and toddlers up.

Because they can be used for an assortment of household duties, it is nice to know which towels belong in the kitchen and which ones are for the bathroom, laundry or dry your hair. Customizing them will keep the right ones in the right room.

Nothing says ‘welcome!’ like towels that literally have the word welcome on them. With custom tea towels, you can have a warm message ready for any guest that stays with you and it helps them locate the towels that are theirs.

Custom tea towels can be used in a variety of situations, your imagination is really the only limit.

Art is provided by Suzanne D Gaadt, buy now or inquire wholesale here

These days, you have to work pretty hard to find people who aren’t familiar with the benefits of flour sack towels.

Professionals, in particular, have discovered their thin linen surface and pure cotton construction make them perfect for screen printing, embroidery and digital printing.

It also doesn’t hurt that the towel itself has a ton of uses, so when used as a promotional tool, professionals know that customers will get the most use out of them.

Do you have a food-based business you want to promote, why not have a favorite recipe printed on a tea towel to let people know about the services you offer? Maybe you’re great at photography and want to offer people a keepsake – you can put wedding pictures, babies and family get-togethers on flour sack towels and sell them in a package with our kitchen towel printing service.

Personalized marketing has taken center stage across various industries and the reason why is obvious: people enjoy those small, personal touches. Today’s consumers can sniff disingenuous marketing from a mile away and do not care for the sleazy salesperson old-school approach from the 90s.

Digital marketing is now the way to connect with new, existing and potential customers, but people get bored with the same approach faster than ever.

If you are planning to promote, rebrand or host an event, you won’t find a better way to do it than to create a custom digitally or screen-printed cotton flour sack towel. Though this household treasure has infinite uses to those who are familiar with it, you can still leverage the essence of this towel to stand apart from the competition.

Visually convey your brand’s identity and mission to positively impact customers, guests and investors using tea towel printing. Marketing with a unique, personal touch is proven to be more effective at attracting new customers and fostering loyalty in existing ones.

Also known as Direct-to-Garment printing (DTG), digital printing is when an entire image is printed directly onto the fabric. The process begins with a digital graphic design, which is then sent to the printer, which prints an image onto the flour sack tea towel.

Advantages of digital printing include:

• Digital printing is a great way to experiment with a wide range of colors, giving you the opportunity to print out multiple copies of a single design or various unique ones.
• There are no required upfront processes. Once you have your design, you can have a company print it directly on the towels, which is why DTG printing is perfect for limited runs (1 – 24 sack towels).
• Digital printers can use more than one color simultaneously, allowing you to experiment with infinite color combinations on the same flour sack towel.
• More detailed, realistic images result in digital printing because you can sample different shades of one color.
• The DTG process involves water-based inks that more effectively bleed into the towel fabric. The printed areas seamlessly blend with the fabric and have a softer texture which makes for a smoother, more comfortable feeling when using the towels.
• DTG printing works well on irregular and flat surfaces. Seeing that tea towels can have very uneven surfaces, this method is going to yield much better results.

Tea towel printing doesn’t have to be very expensive either. At Mary’s Kitchen Flour Sack Towels, we offer tea towel digital printing services with no minimum purchase required as well as free shipping. So, don’t be afraid to play around with ideas of how your creativity can transform the blank canvas that is a tea towel.

Screen Printed Flour Sack Tea Towels

An alternative to digital printing, screen printing uses wooden-framed silkscreen presses that are manually operated. To start this process, a design is used to create a stencil, which is pressed onto the towel to block off the final shape. Ink is then applied to the fabric as the silkscreen is pressed against it. A sweeping motion is used to allow the ink time to seep into the towel, creating bolder prints.

Advantages of screen printing include:

• Cheaper bulk purchases as production costs decrease as the number of units ordered increase, allowing you to offset initial costs by ordering in bulk.
• Designs that have been screen printed are reported to be more efficient than their DTG counterparts.
• The ink used results in bolder outlines that sit on top of the fabric longer, resulting in precise outlines.
• Typically, screen printing is much faster when it comes to large-scale manufacturing, but it does depend on the process a company uses. Reputable companies will use fully-automated methods which ensure higher output.

Regardless of the reason you are using sack towels as promotional tools or the method you decide to go with, one thing is certain: people are going to remember your name and your brand. When something as unique as a flour sack towel is personalized, it creates a lasting impression, but more than that, it creates lasting appreciation.

Not to be limited to the kitchen, or the home for that matter, flour sack towels can be used wherever you entertain or play as well, which is why wholesale flour sack towels are a great investment.

When you see all of the more unconventional ways flour sack dish towels are used, you’ll understand why buying flour sack towels in bulk is the only way to go. They are free of dyes, extremely easy to wash and are reusable and sustainable. They also get softer as time goes on.

Crafting

Pre-washed, non-raveling and pre-contracted, crafters have found that flour sack towels make ideal canvases. They are brilliant for needle-work, applique, stamping, weaving and numerous other projects.

• Use the flour sack towel to make a checkerboard.
• Turn plain sacks into couch or chair pillows by sewing them together and filling with stuffing.
• Make tea towel jewelry.
• Sew clothing like your own apron, a chef’s hat for you and everyone in the family or make an adorable skirt.
• Reusable grocery bags.

In the Home

• Make a broom cover by folding the cloth in half, placing the ends of the brooms bristles in the fold and tying the corners together.
• Heavyweight white flour sack towels can be used as cloth diapers as they are permeable, solid, don’t hold stains or scents and are gentle to the touch.
• Similar to the above, they are great for burping and nursing materials.
• Use as napkins.

First Aid

• Can be used as a sling to support injured hands, elbows, wrists, shoulders and arms.
• Cut them to the appropriate size and use them as a bandage to cover wounds.
• Stopping serious bleeding or use as a tourniquet.

The more you learn how to be resourceful and creative in your use of the best flour sack towels, the more you will be happy that at Mary’s Kitchen Flour Sack Towels we give you the chance to buy flour sack towels colored and plain in bulk.

If you’ve never once considered owning flour sack towels before, hopefully you are now rethinking that decision. As one of the most versatile, durable items you can find, they also fit right into the current times as more sustainable options than paper towels, napkins and disposable wipes.

A kitchen favorite, flour sack dish towels are just as popular for what they can do everywhere else in the house, at work, during social events and in your spare time.

With a dizzying array of uses, flour sack towels are a must-have household item for everyone, kitchen dweller or not. Shop our wide range of flour sack towels today to start reaping the benefits.