The Use of Linen Dish Cloths And Their Care

I like to think housewives of the past embroidered their dish towels with weekly activities as a way of reminding them what household tasks were to be done that day. Has a sort of romantic old fashioned appeal don’t you think?

Truly I’m not sure for the reasoning for the specific homemaking duties embroidered on dish towels but it was popular not that long ago as there are many stories going around of remembering one’s mother or grandmother’s vintage set.  It has also seen a resurgence but not for ready made ones. If the idea appeals to you you will find for making your own set.

Here are some vintage tips for caring for your dish cloths.

“For dish towels there is nothing better than the glass towelling of linen, barred with blue or red. It wears well, and leaves no lint on the dishes, and is quite as economical as the best quality of crash.

Dish towels are too often made of coarse harsh linen which when new will not wipe the dishes dry, and after it has become old, it is apt to retain a greasy smell.

Do not use towels that are part cotton, for they will not do the work well.

After every dish-washing the dish cloth and towels should be thoroughly washed and placed
where they will dry quickly. A rod attached to the stove is used for the purpose. As often as the weather permits they should be dried out doors.

In every household it ought to be a rule that the towels and dish cloths be put into the wash once a week, and a fresh supply used. “

~From Attic to Cellar; or Housekeeping Made Easy

More on Vintage Dish Towels

Free knitting pattern for making letter Days of the week Dish Towels

Vintage European Linens at Touch of Europe

Putting Away Kitchen Linens

December 17, 2009 | | Tags: , , | Comments Closed

Vintage Holiday Recipes to Round Out The Year’s End

In a time with few pre-made packaged baked goods a Vintage hostess turned to her own recipes for the sweets with which to treat her guests.  Here are a few recipes from the vintage cookbook…365 Cakes and Cookies: A Cake or Cooky for every day in the year 1904


Cheap Sponge Cake

Mix carefully 1 cupful of powdered sugar, 3 eggs, and 1 cupful of flour into which has been sifted 1 teaspoonful of
baking powder; flavor with the juice of half a lemon. Bake in shallow pans for 20 minutes.


Molasses Cake

Beat 1/2 cupful of butter until soft; heat slightly 1 cupful of molasses ; add to it the butter and 1 cupful of boiling water ; take from the fire and add 1/2 teaspoonful of soda, 1 tablespoonful of ginger, 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon, and enough flour to make a batter that will drop from a spoon, with 1 teaspoonful of baking powder mixed with the flour. Bake in small gem pans in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.

Cinnamon Jumbles

Use 1 lb, of flour, 3/4 lb. of sugar, 2 3/4 cupfuls of butter, 6 ozs. of almond meal, 1 teaspoonful of cinnamon, 2 well-beaten
eggs. Rub the flour and butter together, add the sugar, cinnamon, almond meal and lastly the eggs. Mix to a stiff paste, roll it out very thin, cut with a round cutter, put an almond in the center of each, brush over with milk, and bake in a moderate oven.

Spice Cookies

Mix thoroughly 2 cupfuls of brown sugar, 2/3 cupful of molasses, 2/3 cupful of drippings, 2/3 cupful of buttermilk, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoonful each of cinnamon, ginger, allspice and cloves, 1 cupful of chopped raisins, flour enough to drop batter, and 1 level teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little water. Bake in a shallow pan. When cool, cut out with a cooky cutter and ice with choco-
late frosting.

December 9, 2009 | | Comments Closed

A Small Story with a Moral

In the life of Madame Swetchine we read the following account of the amusements of a clever child…

” The occupation of a courtier did not prevent Monsieur Soymonof from bestowing the most assiduous care on
the education of a daughter, who for six years was his only child. He was struck by the progress of her young
intellect. She showed an aptitude for languages, music, and drawing, while she developed firmness of character,
— a rare quality in a child.

She desired a watch with an ardour which transpired in all her movements, and her father had promised her
one. The watch came and was worn with the keenest enjoyment ; but suddenly a new thought seized upon the
little Sophia. She reflected that there was something better than a watch. To relinquish it of her own accord,
she hurried to her father and restored to him the object of her passionate desires, acknowledging the motive. Her
father looked at her, took the watch, shut it up in a bureau drawer, and said no more about it.”

~The Art of Entertaining

December 5, 2009 | | Comments Closed