You could try the foam out on a remnant or a facecloth and launder it a couple of times. The stuff looks like the foam that is available for embroidery, but i never compared the two. So give it a try, only way to find out.
Please, don't ask about DBC again. I know miss Veronika is working on it, but nobody knows how long it will take before it returns, it must be very frustrating for her to see this question almost every day! And it may look quite different than the old DBC.
You did not ruffle any feathers. You may have missed all the questions; waiting is the only thing we can do at the moment. As soon as it is back you'll see lots of new designs as most digitisers have a number of new ones waiting to be posted.
All I can really tell you is that DBC is under maintenance & will take time to be finished. There are quite a few things to go through in it. I'm sure it is being done as quickly as possible & that we are all missing it but we just need to be patient.
As far as towels go, you can use net/fine tulle the same colour of the towel to put under your design (on the top of the towel) which will keep the fuzzies down. It tears away easily enough when the emb. is finished....& what is left just blends into the towel.
Hope this info helps you......