Remember Rosie, the diner waitress in the Bounty commercials? Her face was said to have "launched a billion rolls of paper towels." Anyone who watched tv between 1970 and 1990, remembers Nancy Walker as Rosie, who convinced us that the "quicker picker upper" outdid all the others by its ability to suck up large spills with just one swipe. And we bought. Boy, did we buy. And for years, few of us gave much thought to how much paper and money we were throwing away with each swipe of the counter?
Then came the pandemic and a shortage of paper products, causing so much anxiety and panic in shoppers on their regular grocery runs. Every time a stocker unloaded a trolley onto the shelves, pandemonium set in as word got around. THERE WERE PAPER TOWELS IN AISLE 3!!
It was, in a word, inane.
A friend said she began using rags instead of paper towels, and she could wash and reuse them. We started doing the same, but our rag basket was always empty just when there was a paint or greasy spill. Before we began cutting up bath towels, it occurred to me that I could make my own paper towels out of fabric. Which, of course would make them unpaper towels.
Cotton flannel seemed like a good option because it sticks to itself and could easily be rolled around a cardboard tube that would fit on the paper towel holder. It's also available in endless colors and designs so could fit into any kitchen color/design theme. Hey, even I have priorities!
I bought a variety of flannel in colors and designs that make me happy because it makes it easier to sew fabric I like and to clean up messes with springy/summery colors, mixed in with (of course) a Ruth Bader Ginsburg print.
Following the size of the common paper towel, I cut 11- x 11-inch squares (more or less, depending on the width of the fabric.) I serged the edges and wrapped them around the cardboard tube from a paper towel roll. A mailing tube or similar tube would also work.
I also made sets for our daughters and guys-in-law, and got the same response from each. "Mom, you need to start an Etsy shop!" Of course, they say this almost every time I come up with one of these projects. But doing that would likely make it feel like work. I'd start dreaming in 11-inch square segments.
The beauty of this is that when they develop holes or are completely stained, they can become a set for the garage to be used as rags, and then I can make more. On the other hand, this could become an obsession.
Time for a new project.