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Don't panic - today is Towel Day! May 25th 2020
For fans of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: don't panic - today is Towel Day! It's Towel Day, a day to honor the late Douglas Adams (wiki) and the first book of his 5-book "trilogy", The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (trailer for the movie version is below). The quote regarding the importance of always carrying a towel (I keep one in the trunk of my car): A towel, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you)*; you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might have accidentally "lost.". What the strag will think is that any man that can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.) *Here's an animated version of "wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you)":
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What is So Special About Turkish Towels ?
A Turkish Towel is not really a towel as much as it is a stylish wrap, throw, scarf or sarong. Turkish Towels have been popular all across Europe for centuries and are just starting to catch on in the US, but many people still don't understand how versatile they can be. To most Americans when we say the word "Towel" we generally envision heavy white Terrycloth butr unfortunately, there's no English word that conveys a beautiful fashion accessory that's both a towel a wrap, a scarf, a sarong all at once. Europeans have long referred to Turkish Towels as "Foutas" or "Peshtemals" which originated as Ottoman bath towels. Thin by design, the 100% Turkish Cotton fabric will quickly dry you after a dip in the ocean but they're also just as good for looking stylish on a cool evening as a wrap or scarf. Even though the 100% Turkish cotton is a thin flat weave they are incredibly absorbent, like Sham-Wows for your body they are perfect for drying off after the bath, pool or beach.
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Turkish Towels 4 Face Masks
Santa Barbara, CA April 13th 2020 - The Riviera Towel Co. announced today they are donating free towels to anyone who is making face masks for medical professionals and those in need. "When I heard one of the challenges for home based mask makers was a lack of fabric I knew we could help." - stated Co-founder Albert DiPadova. "After boosting an ad on Facebook offering free Turkish Cotton towels for making face masks the request came flooding in from around the country" The tight flat woven 100% Turkish cotton makes the perfect material for face masks. Depending on the number of folds you want, you can make up to 15-20 masks from one towel, which are extremely soft so they don't chafe your skin when worn all day. Locally, Anneliese from Santa Barbara Mask Makers is making face masks for the SB community including non-profits, grocery store workers and Animal Hospitals. She's also sending some to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington DC where her daughter is a surgeon. If people want to get involved they can visit this website to learn more. https://annelieseplace9.wixsite.com/sbmaskmakers To request towels and learn more about RTC's program pease send an email to - Info @ RivieraTowel - com Stay Safe -xoxo - RTC Get Involved. Learn to Sew by joining one of these local groups. @SBPinkHats @SBMaskMakers We are so proud of these kids who took on the Most Mask Maker Challenge! #MostMaskMakerChallenge Turkish towels make great material for making your own face mask, it's tightly woven 100% cotton will help prevent you from coughing or sneezing on someone and spreading germs. If you want extra protection you can add a pocket to your face mask construction to hold a charcoal filter, like these PM2.5 which you can get from Amazon. https://amzn.to/3b9Ed2f How to Turn A Turkish Towel Into A Face Mask What You'll Need: A Turkish Towel - Cut into 10-inch by 6-inch rectangles of tightly woven cotton fabric Two 6-inch pieces of elastic (or rubber bands, hair ties, string, or cloth strips) A sewing machine Or, a basic needle and thread How to Assemble It: Stack the two rectangles of fabric. Fold the longer, 10-inch sides 1/4 inch down and sew them together. Fold the shorter, 6-inch sides 1/2 inch over and sew at the edge, leaving a small space open for the elastic to loop in. Thread the elastic through the opening you left in step 3. Tie or sew the ends together. Tuck the knots inside the opening. Gather the short sides together and stitch the elastic into place Our favorite video on how to sew face masks at home.
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Top Reasons to Buy Turkish Cotton Towels from the Aegean Region
Riviera Towels uses only OEKO-TEX® certified textiles because they keep chemicals out of the manufacturing process. They're tough on standards that keep both the planet and our customers healthy.
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RTC 100% Turkish Cotton Options - Aegean Sustainable - Re-Gen - Organic Certified
RTC's offers three cotton choices for our custom wholesale orders - all of which are pesticide free and sustainably produced, however there are differences in production methods, certifications, quality and price. Standard 100% Turkish Cotton - Soft Feel - Published prices - Most all of the towels we manufacture use our Standard 100% Turkish Cotton farmed with sustainable practices, but they are not certified organic. Our Standard Cotton comes from the Aegean Region in Turkey and has long been produced using earth friendly measures making it free from toxic chemicals, pesticides, and GMOs, producing long staple fibers that are more absorbent, but softer to the touch. Re-Gen Cotton - Rougher hand, less expensive by 15% on Avg. - Because it comes from recycled cotton scraps, Re-Gen Cotton is slightly stiffer before washing, but less expensive and helps reduce landfill waste. Traditionally large amounts of leftover scrap cotton have been discarded in landfills, creating adverse effects to the environment. Re-Gen thread is made from these pre-consumer scraps and used in the manufacturing of our Re-Gen towels. It is an Earth-friendly way of re-using cotton rather than sending it to the landfill. 100% Organic Cotton - Smoothest Feeling - more expensive by 15% on Avg. – Even though our standard 100% Aegean Turkish cotton is sustainably farmed some of our clients require an Organic Cotton Certification for their programs. In this case we source yarns from suppliers that can produce a verifiable GOTs certificate for Organic Cotton, which is the European standard for certified organic content. All of RTC towels use - Oeko-Tex Certified Dyed Yarns - The STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® is an internationally approved standard that ensures the highest and most effective product safety from a consumer’s point of view. This means the color dyes we use do not contain toxic chemicals. The Riviera Towel company only purchases verifiable Oeko-Tex 100 Standard Certified yarns. Just because a garment is labeled as “green,” “sustainable” or “eco-friendly” does not make it organic. Cotton fabrics are only organic if certified to an organic cotton standard. The Organic Content Standard (OCS ) 25 from Textile Exchange and the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) 26 are voluntary supply chain standards that track organic fiber/material content as it moves through production and into a final product. OCS is used to support content claims, and GOTS – which includes additional social and environmental requirements in processing – is used to support product claims. Learn More about Organic Cotton Standard...from the International Textile Exchange Organization.
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