**THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS FOR ALL OF YOUR ENTRIES!**
Surely I’m not the only one with a Napery obsession? Never one to give out paper napkins at the dinner party, it can be a curse rather than a blessing (try getting lipstick or red wine marks out of cream linen napkins). And as for tea towels, I confess to hoarding too many of these. Bakers and cooks know that a tea towel always comes in handy. I’m convinced even native Australians have at least one Australian tourist teatowel in their drawer. I have two (although these usually stay low in the drawer).
But the ones I treasure most are the ones with the beautiful patterns and Annabel Trends have some gorgeously patterns teatowels in 100% Pure Linen (yes this is the seriously good stuff). We’re giving away a set of their teatowels in the green leaf print and the blue prints below, retailing at $25.90.
All you have to do is tell me in 35 words or less, the most creative use for a teatowel. Add your entry via a comment to this story. You can enter once daily and this competition is open to anyone in the world with a postal address! The competition ends midnight AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time) on Sunday the 31st of August so you have plenty of time!
Just a little story that might inspire you from the people at Annabel Trends. Annabel who started Annabel Trends had a whole lot of teatowels printed up as party invitations and posted them out to everyone. Not only was it a great invite that one got to use everyday, her daughter Sally who now runs the company is still using hers and the invite was from 1997!
If you can’t wait, you can buy your very own from David Jones nationwide or Matchbox in Melbourne or just check out the stockists on: http://annabeltrends.com/
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117 Comments | Add your own
when i was at school, we made bags from 2 of them to carry our supplies to and from home ec class..i still have mine, kids use it as a library bag!
With a bit of a roll and a fold, you can make a funny looking chicken.
My kids love having them pinned onto the back of their shirts to become an instant super hero
my kids use my tea towels for everything from treasure bags to superhero capes and they’ve also used them to wrap up gifts which is such a treasure for me
I use them to wrap presents for family or friends. Very good for a house warming gift as it’s also some extra for the recipients, but could be used for birthday’s etc. presents as well.
I sew tapes on the tea towel edges and make a apron. If really nice tea towel make a wall hanging hem top and bottom thread piece of dowell wood cut to size and sew or tie nice cord as a wall hanger, cut it up make a teddy bear cute.
I collect them when on holidays as souvenirs and then always have something special to look at when feeling down .
I love to use really nice teatowels that I find and make great out door chair covers for when I have people over. That way they match the table wear as well.
When my YaYa (Greek Grandmother) passed down her Spanikopita recipe to me, she said the secret was to hang the cooked spinach in a tea towel to drain then squeeze excess water - it works!
My favourites are the souvenir ones with maps — sew two together and stuff them. You’ll have some very kitsch cushions to spice up a dull couch.
when my tea towels have seen better days i dry my puppy with them lol he loves it!
Tea Towels are a must for swollen joints to wrap the frozen peas in, must be good quality towels, or it gets too cold. Why not make a fashion statement, and cheer yourself up a little?
We use our Tea Towels as blind folds for the kids when they play hide and seek or at a party for pin the tail on the donkey !
My huband once had to use a tea towel for 3 night as a towel as he forgot to pack one on a business trip. I never used it as a tea towel again.
When my son was in kinder, the kids all autographed a sheet of paper. They were then collated onto one image that was screenprinted onto teatowels as end-of-year gifts for the kids.
I use really pretty looking tea towels to drape over the top of my microwave which helps brighten up the kitchen.I can often find one that matches my oven mits etc
When I was overseas my Nanna sent me a WA teatowel over for my birthday, I used it as a colourful wall hanging.
Love the idea of printing invitations onto tea towels - genius!
I like to use quirky retro - or just plain gorgeous - themed teatowels folded as napkins at place settings. They save on wasteful paper napkins, look great and are fantastic conversation starters.
You can not beat using tea towels for the head gear on the shepherds and wise men for the annual church Christmas Nativity play!
I sew my tea towels together to make a really cute and kitsch table runner or as a fun alternative to your ordinary picnic blanket
If you sew two linen tea towels, that have been folded in half, together, you have a superb chair bag that fits over the back of a chair to hold all your bits and pieces!
I love collecting Tea Towel I have over 300 which I use for wall hanging, covers for my lounge arm chairs, towels for my little Down Syndrome Grand Daughter because she’s so little.
Stick the tea towel in the freezer, than put under cold water, squeeze out and put around your head for hot days.
I keep 2 teatowels in a plastic bag in the car - it’s amazing how many times they get used - drying hands or sitting on if the seats don’t look to good when in the park!
They look great as bunting for birthday parties. Get a long piece of string and hang them on folded into a triangle with decorative pegs!
i use towels to sop up the drool produced by looking at various food porn, often found on this particular site…
I wrap my Christmas presents in tea towels. Great for the environment and makes a bonus gift too.
Tea towels are great for whipping your partner when they don’t do what they are told.
I use a tea towel instead of a salad spinner. Rinse your lettuce leaves, place on tea towel, grab each corner and swing around above your head. Your salad will be dry, your kitchen wet (unless you went outside)and your family will be in hysterics.
Starch them and use them as placemats
If any insects dares to trespass onto my property, tea towels are the most handy things to have - just twist and whack!
A nappy in a pinch.
If it’s a really gorgeous tea towel, you can sew them together and make a decorative pillow out of it. Use two different but complimentary patterns so you can turn it to either side depending on your mood.
Anything except drying dishes…that’s why they invented dishwashers
Grab some pretty tea-towels and fold them into flowers, pop them in a basket and present as a kitchen tea or house warming present.
I make a plastic bag holder. Sew together long sides then sew ends to feed through decorative rope - then hang. Can customise the tea towel to match your kitchen.
i have tea towels in my house up as art work. some of the designs are fantastic. i just pin them to a board and presto a fantastic art piece. when i get sick of them i then use them for what they are supposed to do (dry boring dishes)
I’ve used a nice teatowel as a bandana before ~ a great fashion statement… Gorgeous & stylish!!!
I can home to find hubby wiping my pet White Rabbit’s gooey mouth on my tea towel. “YUK”
I came home to find hubby wiping my pet White Rabbit’s gooey mouth on my tea towel. “YUK”
I made one into a sling when my son broke his arm
I was stuck in the middle of nowhere broken down with a baby in the car and while i was waiting i was forced to use one as a nappy!!!!!
You can make a really cute bulletin board out of a tea towel. Attach the towel to a piece of cork/fibre board and place a picture frame around it. Now you can keep your pictures and notes on it and hang it in your kitchen.
We used them once to make parachutes for my sons Buzz Lightyear Doll, and hubby was on the roof throwing it up in the air.
We have a set of tea-towels framed in our kitchen. The set is smaller now than it was - one was taken out and used for washing up during a big party!
Oh, depending on the pattern you can make really cute Christmas stockings out of them. It doesnt necessarily have to be a Christmas pattern at all…you can use a toile or gingham and it would still be appropriate.
With a couple of folds and some quick stitching, I’ve made one into a cutlery envelope for picnics, with sections for knives, forks and spoons. Very handy and so practical!
I bought some plain white tea towels and got a picture of my gorgeous baby printed onto them and handed out as gifts at his First Birthday Party!!!
To take beautiful photos for the blog!
A tea towel is used for drying dishes. Can you please inform my husband it is NOT for wiping spills off floors, cleaning car parts, blowing noses onto and whipping me in the kaboose?!
Wet it, freeze it, place it on my face on really hot days. BLISS!
these look like marimekko tea towels.
i would use tea towels to get hot things out of the oven if my oven mitts are not available.
I fold mine to make it look like a roast chicken to amuse the kids!
I use them to wrap up delicious homemade gifts for my friends!
I’ve read all the ideas and the half dozen ideas I had in my mind are already here. Hmmm.. what else?
A large teatowel has come in handy when I’ve needed to wrap up my wet hair before and I only had giant bath sheets and beach towels on hand.
All good shepherds need a tea towel!
Where would the school nativity play be without them?
I have found them strong, sturdy and reliable when knotted together and tethered to the balcony balustrade. I can make a rapid escape from my Mother in Law at the ring of a doorbell.
I’ve sewn a patchwork apron out of brightly coloured tea towels - Next I want to make a matching oven mitt
As a teacher, I made turbans out of teatowels for all the children to wear in our Christmas play. They looked fantastic and then took home the teatowel and thought it was great!
I used nice tea towels to make cushions for my new house, as I was at uni at the time and was unable to afford to buy the material I liked, but found a similar pattern on some tea towels at the time that were on sale! I’ve still got the cushions, and nobody can tell they were once simple tea towels!
Wipe oil from a dipstick
Clean vomit when airsick
Make a flag for your bike
Carry lunch when you hike
Wrap birthday wishes -
Just don’t do the dishes!
I sewed up different designs of tea towels for a tablecloth and it’s a great talking point at dinner time.
I once made a Teddy bear dress and little bra with stuffing out of a torn/shredded teatowel. I sold it for $70
Both my children have brought home priceless treasures from kinder. All the kids drew a picture of themselves and they were then printed on a T-towel
Cut an old one into strips and use them for rag curls for my daughter’s dancing competitions. Perfect!
I am completely besotted with pinning my fave tea towels to canvas and adorning my walls. All because I find them too beautiful to use!
Loving everyone’s ideas!
Each year at our primary school, the children draw a picture of themselves and all the little faces are printed on to a tea towel as a very special and personal keepsake!
im known as the teatowel hunter.i collect them all shapes and sizes.i nearly had a xxxxx when i seen this comp.
The waste we produce is foul,
so use a nice tea towel,
instead of wrapping paper,
and do the world a favour!
I use them instead of wrapping paper, wrap presents in them and it becomes the gift that keep on giving!
We use teatowels as bips for our daughter. One end gets tucked under the plate, the other side into the shirt. That way the teatowel collects any food that would normally fall on her clothes.
We use tea towels around the kids necks to protect their nice clothes when eating something sloppy for dinner i.e. spaghetti bolognaise.
My young children select the best/prettiest in the draw to clean up any spillage, from beetroot to cordial ewwww!
USe them as wrapping paper as they are always on hand and usually clean
When you have a huge solar panel on your head like me - it makes for a great sunhat & shade!
Replacement mother for newborn rabbit.
Instead of using a dish rack to put my just washed dishes on, I put them on a tea towel to drain and dry.
My daughter loves to wrap her dolls in all my good tea towels. She never picks the old ones out of the draw!
I love giving it a twirl and giving my sister a flick on the butt when she gets slow at drying up.
My mother-in-law used them to save my sister-in-laws life when she was a baby. She’d run through a plate glass window, and mums quick thinking (and copious amounts of teatowels) stopped the blood and saved her life!
I make hampers for christmas and I line the basket with a tea towel and add a couple of them rolled up to fill in the gaps, it looks great and the recipients love them.
My favourite use of the tea towel is to wrap up hot dinner rolls at Sundays roast dinner
When packing to go to Thailand
my husband insisted that we pack light and take tea towels instead of beach towels. They worked a treat when laying you head down and didnt weight much either.
I use a tea towel for wiping down the exercise machine I use at the gym as it’s covered with my sweat.
I just love teatowels, I use them constantly for everything from wiping up messes after my kids to getting yummy foods out of the oven, I have about 4 in the wash every day….
I use teatowels all day everyday from washing the car, because they are just the right size, to putting ice inside to put on the kids bruises, to using them to dust. The list goes on. I am never without a teatowel over my shoulder.
I use teatowels that my children have painted pictures on and wrap presents that are going to elderly relatives.
I find them very handy as a facewarmer during the winter months. I put them in the oven, heat them up and an instant facewarmer is ready.
A gorgeous tea towel shaped into a basket makes a great gift filled with homemade muffins, cookies etc.
First thing my 3 girls grab when they get a injury, teatowel, ice pack and a piece of chocolate (3 essentials in first aid kit)
My grandaughter gives her ‘babies’ a nappy,
then wraps them in tea towel,
she rocks them till she is happy,
that they are well.
I use my old ones as furniture dusters and polishers, they are very efficient.
While dog-sitting a tiny little chihuahua in winter, I fashioned a dog coat from a fluffy terrycloth teatowel. While it didn’t stop the chihuaua shake, it did stop her shivering.
Make an elephant by folding 2 towels. One towel is used to make the main body and legs while the other towel becomes the head, ears and trunk.
Having trouble to get tablecloths to fit that are strong, I sew tea towels together for the designer look that is practical too
Tea towel cake made fom rolled up tea towels for a housewarming present
Origami…..teatowels make really cool origami chickens and more!
Hot scones are best
In a tea towel to rest
The dishes dry fast
Using tea towels that last
I love the bench colour
When the lamb roast is smothered
Line a small basket with a tea towel and tip in your batch of hot scones. Fold tea towel over the scones so they remain delightfully hot until your guests eat the lot.
My children rade my linen cuboard for dolly blankets.
I find them all over the house keeping the children happy with smiles.
I use really attractive tea towels as gift wrapping with designs appropriate for the occasion. Everyone loves them!
One to dry my stamps after separating it from paper with hot water.
The other to make my piano shine!
I find tea towels handy as pretty doilies for the dresser. You can get them to match the colours of your doona cover, without having the dated look of lace. Great to bring colour to a young ones room or covering imperfections on a used piece of furniture
I use pretty teatowels as a headscarf while I clean the house. Works both ways as a personal fashion statement and a rag when you need one!
When my kitchen tap was leaking, I used a teatowel to stop the leak.Now I say, a Teatowel a day keeps the plumber away. At least for another day.
My Dod Roxy has worn one as a Bandana andshe looked tea towelirishious!
To cover up ugly stained backgrounds when taking food pictures! The diff colors of a tea towel contrasts perfectly and you can match with the color of your plate/food you’re photographing with.
Teatowels are great used as aprons - it allows you to multi task.
My old aunt makes bed quilts out of them. She’s been doing it for over 50 years. They look great
Every Christmas, when my son was little, he always had to dress as either a shepherd or Joseph… the teatowel with a roll and a fold made a wonderful headdress.
to keep the christmas ham fresh. Dip in cold water with a dash of vinegar and wrap around ham.
When my three little grandsons come to dine, I whip out the tea towels. One to cover the chair ,one around their neck. This keeps me sane, and my chair covers clean!
I love to use them as covers for my appliances, toaster covers, microwave tops, etc.
Stuck for an idea for a fancy dress party costume? Grab a blue & white tea towel& turn it into a headdress. Hey presto!
You’re Yasser Arafat.
I like to wear them as shirts. That way when I spill I can throw it in the wash and tie on a new one. Fashionable and useful!
I have used beautiful teatowels as wrapping paper as it is not disposed off, creating landfill but reused and seen as part of the gift.
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