An interesting topic today... I ran into a problem today with a linen mix
dress.
I have a cotton / linen blend off-white dress that I had not worn in a
couple of years. I was cleaning out my closet and noticed the dress had
turned a dark tea color. I took the dress to the dry cleaners today and
they said that they could not get the tea color out. She stated the reason
this happened was because of the hot temperatures in my closet. Last week
we had 100 degree temperatures and my closet has two exterior walls. I
opened my closet door and the air was really hot. So I started leaving the
closet door open on hot days to let the air conditioning get into the
closet.
Tonight, I washed the dress with hot water, Shave shampoo, and a little
bleach. To get rid of the bleach in the fabric, I rinsed it several times
in clear water. The dress color is now its natural off-white! YEA! I am
going to try the refrigerator trick to see how it works on this dress.
BTW, I have found that Shave shampoo is gentle enough to wash white delicate
natural fabrics. I have been using Shave for the past year and it works
wonders!
I am wondering where the cooling the linen before ironing originated. Some
of you mentioned that your mothers taught you to do this. It makes me
wonder if this method was something that was passed down through the
generations. I checked in my 1894 Cole's Dictionary of Dry Goods and
cooling the linen is not mentioned.
Penny Ladnier,
Owner, The Costume Gallery Websites
www.costumegallery.com
www.costumelibrary.com
www.costumeclassroom.com
www.costumeencyclopedia.com
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