I usually wash as much as possible, however, washing polished cotton has resulted in the "polish" washing out, and stiff taffeta got limp and wrinkly. I wash my cotton velvet Renaissance costume and the silk sleeves/forepart. Also dry in dryer until just damp. Sharon
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chris Laning Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 12:21 PM To: Historical Costume Subject: RE: [h-cost] abuse of fabrics (aka care and washing) question At 10:40 AM -0600 3/5/06, Betsy Marshall wrote: >My information is that dry cleaning helps preserve the fabric >treatments used by the manufacturer- either fabric or clothing >processes; so fabric of wool, linen, silk or combinations thereof, >_can_ be washed, just be prepared for the size/hand/texture to change. >(Personally I toss it all in the washer on cold and let the chips, er, >scraps fall where they may.) My philosophy is to give the finished garment a cleaning treatment that's one step gentler than the washing I gave the fabric before I cut it out. I pretty much machine wash all yardage as soon as I get it home and the edges zigzagged. This has worked a lot better for some things than others. I've not had any problems with linen or silk, but I've learned to be more careful about wool, especially about tumble drying it. I had a wool Elizabethan gown (and I can now boast that it was custom-made for me by Margo -- yes, THAT Margo, of Margo's patterns <g>) and she washed my wool yardage on hot, _three_ times before she cut it out. And I washed it on cold and dried it on barely lukewarm, and it DID shrink, almost three inches in length after half a dozen washings. :( -- ____________________________________________________________ O Chris Laning <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - Davis, California + http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com ____________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
