Loofah washcloth with varied areas of coarseness and method

Abstract

A mitten-shaped washcloth with a very coarse usable surface and a generally rough usable surface and having an inside lining and reinforcing lining border around an outer perimeter made of fabric is made by cutting a cylindrical loofah piece off a gourd, shortening it, slicing it open lengthwise to remove the interior, flattening it into a sheet of loofah, shaping it, cutting open a cavity for the hand and sewing the border and lining on easily.

1 . A washcloth for scrubbing human skin, comprising:  
     a loofah mitten having a substantially planar upper surface that is generally rough, the upper surface usable for scrubbing a wearer's human skin, and a usable substantially planar lower surface that is very coarse, the lower surface usable for scrubbing the wearer's human skin, 
 the mitten also having an inside lining made of fabric,  
 the mitten including an opening for insertion of the hand at a wrist portion of the mitten,  
 a reinforcing lining border made of fabric around an outer perimeter of the mitten, the reinforcing lining border at the opening being divided into an upper edge and a lower edge,  
 the upper surface and the lower surface together spanning an outer surface of the mitten except for the reinforcing lining border.  
 
   
   
       2 . The washcloth of  claim 1 , wherein the fabric for the reinforcing lining border is cloth.  
   
   
       3 . The washcloth of  claim 1 , wherein the fabric for the inside lining is smooth cloth.  
   
   
       4 . The washcloth of  claim 1 , wherein the fabric for the inside lining is smooth cloth and wherein the fabric for the reinforcing lining border is cloth.  
   
   
       5 . The washcloth of  claim 1 , wherein a substantially entire lower surface is usable and wherein a substantially entire upper surface is usable.  
   
   
       6 . The washcloth of  claim 5 , wherein the fabric for the reinforcing lining border is cloth.  
   
   
       7 . The washcloth of  claim 5 , wherein the fabric for the inside lining is smooth cloth.  
   
   
       8 . The washcloth of  claim 5 , wherein the fabric for the inside lining is smooth cloth and wherein the fabric for the reinforcing lining border is cloth.  
   
   
       9 . A method of making a loofah washcloth shaped like a mitten, comprising the steps of: 
 cutting off a fruit of a loofah gourd to obtain a cylindrical piece of loofah, said cylindrical piece of loofah being generally rough on its outside,    making a vertical incision through the cylindrical piece of loofah beginning from a top surface and continuing to approximately a bottom surface, or from a bottom surface and continuing to approximately a top surface, to expose a substantially full length of an interior of the cylindrical piece of loofah,    cutting and removing a loofah interior from the cylindrical piece of loofah, leaving a hollow cylindrical piece of loofah whose interior wall is very coarse,    flattening the hollow cylindrical piece of loofah to create a substantially planar loofah sheet having a usable upper surface that is generally rough and a usable lower surface that is very coarse,    shaping the loofah sheet by cutting the loofah sheet to conform said loofah sheet to an outer perimter of a mitten,    cutting through a thickness of the loofah sheet to split the thickness into two parts beginning at a wrist portion of the mitten so as to define a cavity for a hand of a user, and    sewing an inside lining into the cavity and sewing a reinforcing border around an outer perimeter of the mitten, the outer perimeter being divided into an upper edge and a lower edge at the wrist portion of the mitten.    
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein after cutting off the fruit of the loofah gourd, a step of cutting horizontally across the cylindrical piece of loofah to reduce its height is performed.