Tammy's Recipes

Here is a quick and frugal way to "recycle" baby bath towels into baby washcloths! These washcloths make the best cloth baby wipes, because they're small/thin and remove soil easily.* They also make great bath time washcloths!

To start, you will need at least one baby bath towel, preferably a terry cloth towel made of 80% cotton and 20% polyester (approximately). You can use an old towel or any towel you don't want to keep for a bath towel. I was given a number of used baby bath towels, and some were rather thin, or small, and so I used those to make washcloths and saved the nice baby bath towels to use for drying.

1. Lay your towel out flat and decide how many squares you wish to cut from it. I prefer thin baby wash cloths that are about 8 inches square. This is usually about 9-12 washcloths per towel, depending on the size of the towel.

2. Using a sharp scissors, cut your towel into squares. You can leave the edging on the towel, but I do prefer to remove the hood part. I usually try to cut a triangular piece from the front of the hood for an extra "free" washcloth. ;)

If you used a towel that was a polyester/cotton blend, there should be no need to hem your washcloths. The first time they are laundered, they will shed a bit of lint from the edges. After that, they won't fray or shed hardly at all. I do have some that I have been using frequently for a couple years now, and the edges have worn a little. Hemming will extend the lifetime by a little bit, but if you are using old towels and want a quick "recycle", you needn't bother hemming them.

*If you're already using cloth diapers, it's a breeze to use cloth wipes, too! Just wet the wash cloth with warm water and you're all set! The used wipes can be laundered with your regular loads of diapers. These cloth wipes work MUCH better than the standard disposable baby wipes! 

Be sure to visit Crystal's blog for lots of other great Frugal Fridays tips!