Like a stationary stone gathering moss, one particular kitchen textile has quietly accumulated names, identities, and lot of confusion. It’s more a victim of the English language and semantics than anything else: Tea towel. Dish towel. Kitchen towel. Dishcloth. Washcloth. Yes, people really want to know what they should search for / purchase.
Where It All Began
Wind the clock back several centuries. Common people used “rags” and scraps of fabric to do everything with the same rag — wiping hands or mopping floors. Obtained from remnants of tattered clothing, and repurposed out of frugality, it is easy to imagine how unsanitary they really were. Hygiene, as a concept, was still catching up. In contrast, a variety of kitchen textiles were evolving to serve specific purposes, but only for royalty and noble houses.
By the late 1700s, as social interaction increased, wealthier households with cooks and domestic staff started using cloth, each made for dedicated purpose - like drying dishes, dusting, mopping, for wrapping freshly baked bread, and so on. One particular style was draped over a tray of confections and beverages being served among those social classes to ladies of leisure; For tea service. That was the tea towel - the original.
From Covering to Wiping. From Style to Purpose.
The traditional tea towel was a thing of occasion. Usually, it was made of thin, fine-woven fabric, often trimmed with lace. It was also cut large enough to cover the wide oval or rectangular trays that accompanied formal service. Came with those were doilies, tea-cozies, milk-cozies and other accoutrement, all matched to look like a perfect, well-intended set. The tea-towel was all about presentation and style designed to be pretty and dainty, in a world of white-gloved formality. That world has largely passed.
Tea parties are rarer and far less ceremonial. Lace is expensive and fussy to launder. Social norms in homes, evolved in parallel with progress of technology and manufacturing. And so, the tea towel in its original form, has all but disappeared. Its name is applied to what now lives in your kitchen drawer. Simplicity has taken over, and well-made and attractive, kitchen towels made from high-quality fabrics have become the new tea-towel. They are relatively inexpensive and most people stock several - to pick one to wipe the counter, another to cover rising dough, a third to catch a spill - and even double them up as an oven mitt in a pinch.
Oh, and maybe to wipe dishes too…
When kitchen towels are used for that purpose, boundaries blur and the dish towel also joins the troupe of interchangeable names. Indeed, some folks used to prefer a heavier fabric like terry cloth or similar, which can also be used to wipe hands when done with the crockery. That too is evolving. More recently, as families shrank and fewer dishes need attention, we find that folks just want lighter fabrics - linen or cotton for instance. Those are preferred because they don't leave lint behind and are known to release moisture almost as quickly as they absorb [without that damp smell].
So What Are Those Little Ones?
Ah, the dishcloth! That is a different creature. Smaller, rougher in texture, and built for scrubbing. It’s domain is the sink, not rising dough. A dishcloth gets down and dirty with detergent and food scraps - intended for washing delicate crockery by hand. It also needs to withstand repeated hot-water washing to stay hygienic. That demands a tougher, more durable construction than a standard kitchen towel. Their usage also explains their small size because they are only a little larger than the palm of your hand.
The washcloth follows the same logic, just relocated to the bathroom - with similar form, and similar function. It is a small, textured cloth for scrubbing skin rather than ceramics, and also needs to be ready to face the washing machine repeatedly.
What About Color?
Sets of kitchen towels and dishcloths are typically sold in one of two ways: all matching, or all different by colour and/or print. It's a question we're asked quite often, and the answer is simple. Some people prefer a uniform color for reasons of décor because a cohesive set looks intentional on a hook or folded neatly on a shelf. Others use color as a practical system, assigning a hue to a purpose, a day of the week, or a person in the household. There is no right answer. Pick what works for your kitchen, your bathroom, your life.
Flour Sack Towels: Sack, or Towel?
These have a history of evolution not unlike how tea towels merged with kitchen towels; But first, a word about the weave, because that is where the biggest surprise lives. We regret to inform you that there is nothing special about flour sack fabric. Basket weave, flat weave, plain weave, and flour sack weave, are in fact, the same thing. We'll explain the nuances below, but that's the foundation.
By the 1800s, a tight, durable plain-weave cotton was the standard material for carrying grain, flour, and sugar. These sacks were heavy-duty with a need to be loaded, shipped, unloaded, and reused repeatedly. The fabric was typically natural, unbleached cotton: nothing fancy. When a sack reached its end of life, it wasn't discarded. Households would cut it apart and repurpose the panels as towels. The sides of a standard sack yielded squares of roughly 28 to 30 inches. Merchants soon recognized the commercial value in this, and started their own recycling operation and a couple of centuries on, flour sack towels are still sold at 28"×28". And why you can still find them in natural, unbleached cotton.
But That Texture?
Those sacks were well-worn before they were ever cut into towels. Repeated use had set permanent creases and rumpling into the surface, giving the repurposed fabric a characteristic softness and gentle texture. That got identified with flour sacks because even heavy iron pressing would not remove the creases. Today, that texture is quite deliberate. After weaving, a post-production process is applied the ordinary basket-weave fabric, to set a texture into the surface. The texture remains for the life of the towel lending it a familiar, broken-in feel from the very first use.
A Rose by Any Other Name
A kitchen towel does perfectly well as a tea towel if you should need it. Plain or decorated flour sack towels will wipe your counters or dishes just as effectively. Hey, these are the 2020s - call them whatever you want
Want to dream up a new name for them?