Cleaning Wipes from an Old Towel

I'm a packrat.

I have no shame in this. Growing up in the 90s has drilled "REUSE. Reduce. Recycle." into my head. Everything has ✨potential✨. If you're still reading, you're probably like me. But listen to me now.

Listen.

I say this to you, because I say this to myself:

If you don't actually do anything with the ✨potential✨.... you're just a trash collector.

You'll be the little old woman in Labyrinth with everything strapped to your back.

So, let's use up that stuff!

This project comes from a few items I had hanging around that had too much ✨potential✨

• A towel with a big hole in it that my husband's had since before we got together (6+ years).

• A single use cleaning wipe container we finally used up after having for years.

• Extra dollar tree contact paper from a prior project

• Doctor Who quilting cotton from an insane sale in 2017

• Thread I got for dirt cheap when Joann's closed (RIP)

I saw all the beautiful re-usable washcloths online and went "I can do that!" but lazier. Much lazier.

Seriously, these are cleaning cloths, made from an old towel. I'm not going to pretend that these are as pretty as you can buy. This Goblin ain't about the picture perfect insta-dreams when it comes to cleaning cloths. I save that for the art (and that still isn't perfect).

So I started with - what size do these need to be, and how much can I get out of this one towel? I measured out the container, it was 7" tall, but I decided 6" was better, since it would be easier to wick the cleaning liquid from the bottom. I decided 5" wide because.... honestly, I don't remember. It seemed like a nice number and about the width of those half-sized paper towels?

With sewing, you always need seam allowance! Let's do 1/2", because 5/8" math is too much when I don't have excel in front of me. So that adds 1" to both lengths (seam allowance is on both sides, remember!). 7" x 6" cutting size.

Next, I measure the towel, to see how many I can get.

With the cutting size and towel measurements, it was time for ..... Goblin math:

Fun Fact: I somehow have a master's degree in accounting

Turns out I can make about 30 of these with 1 towel.

Yep, 30.

It was at this time, Goblin fucked up in multiple ways, but she would not know it for a bit.

You may have some questions at this point. Let me go ahead and answer those for you now:

• No, I did not think about how many 30 was. At least not until I had cut both fabrics and was halfway through sewing all of them.

• Yes, I still went through with making 30 (ish, one over the towel's hole was used as reinforcement for the others)

• No, I definitely do not need 30 pre-wetted cleaning wipes at any time.

• No, only about 8 of these fit in the container I have.

• No, they are not pretty enough to sell or give as gifts.

• Yes, I have quite the habit of min-maxing fabric without thinking of purpose.

• No. I don't think I will ever learn this lesson.

I tried to get clever with cutting the quilting cotton, by lining up the edges with the towel edges, so I could just leave that edge out and top stitch. It went fine. But it depends on if you'd rather have the extra scrubbing power of the towel edge or your time and sanity back. Or your spine. We come from the Rachel Maksy school of floor trolls here.

Look at that gorgeous carpet!

If you're new to sewing, that white edge with extra funky texture is called "selvage." Not always pretty, but it does not fray like a cut edge. You can leave it on the outside of the project and run it through the wash without issue. You can also be a lazy Goblin and not fold it under when stitching your final edge. Just put your nice sides of both fabric together, sew the 3 other sides, flip it right side out, and stitch the last side together! Easy peasy! I didn't even use pins after my first one. That's like, unheard of for me.

This one didn't have selvage for the top fabric. I had to fold over & stitch.

And then: I had an idea

I don't know if y'all remember this thing called COVID? Well, I now have an extra 200 pre-cut ear strap elastics with sizing beads on them. Of course, I couldn't get rid of them... there was ✨potential✨

I decided I could remove the beads (yes, I saved them!) and cut one in half to make a strap for when I need to... scrub against gravity? I don't know, we'll see if they actually help at all with time.

I sandwiched the elastic between my two fabrics, the edge lining up with the middle of the first long side of my stitching.

Now comes the tricky part:

For some reason I decided it would be easier to sew the elastic as part of the final edge, right sides out.

Goblin lesson: If you have to do 30 of something, do it a bunch of different ways to figure out the best method.

If I were to do this again, I think leaving the short edge for last and pulling tight the elastic for sewing the 2nd long edge might be easier.

But in case it helps you, here are the acrobatics I did with my elastic on my last stitch to tuck it in without stitching on top of the elastic: I stopped with my needle down and lifted my presser foot halfway through the last long side. I pulled the elastic behind the needle first, bringing it around the front in order to tuck it between the two fabrics. Then, when I continue stitching forward, the top elastic is already past the stitching point, and the underside is now in the final seam.

Did you know it's ridiculously hard to photograph under a presser foot?

And eventually, we have WAY too many towels!

Would sewing silly little eyes on them be too creepy?

Contact paper over the receptacle was fairly straightforward, and I used a cleaning solution tablet to avoid buying more plastic just to get my cleaning solution. 2 tablets make 16 oz, so I just used 1 with 8 oz. However, I ended up adding a little more water in the end, so more like 10 oz.

Hindsight: I should've made the liquid outside the container, then poured it over the cloths in the container. Then gravity would pull all the extra down.

As I did it, the fabric didn't wick it all to the top, so I ran a bit more water on top and then laid it on its side, hoping it'll all even out the cleaning power.

Final thoughts:

• They work pretty good! I like that they're smaller, I feel like I'm making less laundry for small cleanups/ one use face washing (this Goblin is tired of decades of acne.)

• Most of them are a little short for the container (selvage edges of the towel are longer)

• Tops & bottoms of the towel are best for cleaning due to lots of reinforced areas

• 30 is TOO MANY

• I've already done fancy top stitching to "mark" some for bathroom washcloths, as using the same ones to clean house and then my face and body, even after going through the wash, just felt weird.

• 30 is still TOO MANY

• I definitely could have gotten away with making 12 and using the rest of the towel to make a little bag or something

• I finished it in a day, which is half the battle with my ADHD mind

All in All: 4 shinies ✨✨✨✨