Cooling linen - Maybe to retard bacterial or fungal growth, but my guess would be to get the most bang from the steam with a bigger temperature differential.
Patty -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Penny Ladnier Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 1:20 AM To: Historical Costume Subject: Re: [h-cost] ironing washed linen--warning 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 _______________________________________________ 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
