Friday, March 25, 2016

Review of DII Zig Zag Weave Kitchen Dishtowels

I was given the opportunity to review these towels for Amazon. DII 100% Cotton, Basic Everyday, Machine Washable, Monogrammable, 16 x 28" Zig Zag Weave Kitchen Dishtowel, Set of 4- Neon Lime. Here is my review and what I did with one of them and what I plan for the rest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are three things that I check for when buying towels of any kind. How well made they are, including how thick or thin. Towels that are too thick can take a really long time (thus money) to dry in the dryer and if you line dry your laundry, they can take a lot longer than other things and end up scratchier and stiffer than your other towels. So on this item, these towels were exactly right. Not too thick or thin, and as they would generally be used for dish towels, they have enough 'oomph' to dry more than one or two dishes before getting saturated. In regards to washing and drying them, the tag states that they are 100% cotton, made in Pakistan, wash in cold water and tumble dry low, low iron. Does anyone really iron their dish towels? By their very nature and what use they are put to, I don't ever wash towels on cold water. I wash them in hot or at the minimum warm water as I want at least a bit of a chance of killing off any germs they may have picked up. They also get the hottest drying of anything else in our laundry. So I do need to report that if you wash towels like I do, you can expect them to shrink up lengthwise about an inch and half. I saw no measureable difference in widths between the washed towel and the unwashed one. See photo. The top towel was the one that went through the wash and the bottom towel was still brand new. A piece of white paper was inserted between the two to highlight the difference.



The second thing I look at, actually probably the first as that is what catches my eye, and that is color. Believe me, I would never ever pick lime green towels to come into my house but that doesn't mean I didn't find a use for them! So far I have turned one into a burp rag for a baby. The rest will follow made up as the first.


The third thing I am concerned about is whether or not I can hoop the towel and do machine embroidery on it. If a towel is too thick the hoop pops open in the midst of the embroidery which pretty much spoils the design. These towels were great for embroidery as the pictures show. I make Project Linus quilts and the ones that I am currently working on are blue and green frog based. So for the mostly blue based frog quilt (boy) I made a burp rag with a frog design on one end and a saying "Burp Baby Burp!" on the other. The frog design is from Embroidery Library #C7977, my most favorite site for getting machine embroidery designs. Don't forget that when embroidering on terry cloth, to use a wash away stabilizer on top of the towel to keep the terry loops from getting in the way. I'm not sure what happen to the close up photo of the words as I'm just getting used to the camera and downloading photos.





These towels I would give 5 stars and wish I could have gotten them in colors I would use in my house, but instead they will eventually be part of a charitable gift, so the color was actually the perfect one to receive.  I hope this gives you some ideas if you end up with some weird colored towels that you don't know what to do with, make them into fashionable Burp Towels for baby.




.

Friday, March 11, 2016

DII Home Essentials Foldable Fabric Storage Containers


I was delighted to use and review these DII Home Essentials Foldable Fabric Storage Containers being sold by Amazon.com.
 
I was pleased to have a chance to try these collapsible boxes out. I’m always on the prowl for items that I can use in my sewing room to make me more efficient or to help me better organize items. When I received these, I was in the process of cutting up scraps pieces for scrap quilts. Since scrap quilts are my favorite, I have specific sizes of pieces that I cut and those can make many different types blocks. However, I was running out of storage places especially since I decided that when possible I would cut a 10” square out of the scraps in case I needed a larger or more sizes of pieces or for the Kaleidoscope quilt that I just found in a magazine. I’ve wanted to make one of those for a long time and this one called for 10” pieces to cut down.
 

It was very easy to set the boxes up and for those that wonder what the ‘loose’ square is for, it fits in the bottom to give strength and help the boxes stay open. It would be nice if they had a lid.
 

This is my first time using this camera and I don't know how to set the date yet.   This box shows four different sizes of quilts pieces; 2 ½” squares, 4 ½” squares, 2 ½” x 4 ½” rectangle and a 5” square that can be used as is or used in triangle production. All of these sizes fit easily in the second box.  They are going to be a great help in my quilting process.
I especially like the color of the boxes since red is my favorite color. However, there are many different colors as well as sizes to chose from when purchasing.