The Vintage Tea Towels You Should Be Keeping An Eye Out For This Year

Vintage linens can be a beautiful way to bring a retro feel into your home, particularly in the kitchen, where linens like vintage tea towels, pot holders, and aprons add character and a sense of history to your space. Calendar tea towels, which were popular in the mid to late 20th century, typically featured a year's dates and months in numerous designs, including birds, botanicals, Dutch accents, animals, kitchen scenes, and stained glass. Some of the first tea towel calendars were created by the Massachusetts-based Stevens Linen Works in 1954, which used them to increase demand for its kitchen linens, selling the towels with a dowel and string for hanging on the wall. The towel was used as a wall calendar and then would usually be used as a towel after the year was over.

Vintage tea towels featuring calendars are a particularly fun way to bring in a touch of the past, whether you are using them in their original roll as towels, hanging them as art, or using them in a DIY fabric project. These cute towels can be even more functional than decorative since the dates often line up with towels from earlier and subsequent years, making them useful as calendars even today. You can often find these calendar towels in thrift stores, antique sellers, flea markets, and other secondhand markets. You can occasionally find them in lots on websites such as Etsy and eBay at budget-friendly prices. 

Every few years, the dates and days of the week line up with towels from the past, including 2026, which bears the same dates as 1987, 1981, 1970, and 1959, while 2027's dates line up with 1971, 1965, and 1954. This means that if you collect enough of these charming towels, you can have an array that you can rotate from year to year. Hang them on the wall with a dowel, scroll magnetic bars, or a traditional frame. You could also use magnets to attach one to the front or side of your fridge.

In addition to art, there are many creative ways to use tea towels in your home. Calendar tea towels can be employed to cover a throw pillow or stool cushion, or used as an array mixed with other vintage towels to create a beautiful DIY window treatment. You can also make them into vintage kitchen accessories like aprons, toaster covers, or plastic bag dispensers.