I wash my lace but only when needed. For allergy reasons I use only a
pure soap powder for all my washing.
I have a piece of silk lace on my silk winter nightie and that gets a
hand wash whenever the nightie is washed. I do iron the nightie and the
lace. Since the nightie is now 6 years old it is showing signs of wear
but not so the lace. The lace will go on the replacement nightie.
My bobbin lace handkerchiefs get the garment bag in the washing machine
treatment. hung on the line to dry and then ironed with a steam iron
(most of the lace is cotton mounted on linen) Again no problems.
I also have lace inserts (these are bookmarks that have found another
life) on my hand towels (waffle weave cotton the lace is either linen or
silk but sewn all around not as an edging). They are washed with my
towels in the washing machine, hung out to dry and ironed later.
Lace is to be enjoyed and used and if necessary washed.
Anna from a sunny Sydney
PS if DMC 50 is still around why can't we buy in Australia?????
On 13/09/11 8:06 AM, Jacquie Tinch wrote:
You need to test wash your lace in the same state as it will be used on the
garment.
You can at least partly pre-shrink the lace by putting a very damp cloth over
it and steaming it with a hot iron using little pressure. Also pre shrink the
fabric or garment.
Sew the sample of lace to the fabric in the same way as it will be in the
finished design, ie. appliquéd on or inserted with the fabric removed from
behind it.
Now you can wash and iron it in the way you will the garment, but the fabric
will be supporting the edges of the lace and mean you are more able to return
or even stretch it to its original size as you iron. I find this is easier to
do if you iron the garment damp, rather than drying it first and then using a
steam iron.
You may find that it is worth going test strips in different threads as well as
the DMC (presumably) perlé 12, as they may react differently to washing.
Jacquie in Lincolnshire.
Sent from my iPhone
On 12 Sep 2011, at 20:58, Donna Fousek<[email protected]> wrote:
I know this will not help you Vila, but it does bring up a good question on
how we are going to use the lace we make. I was thinking of inserting some
stripe lace onto a summer top to cover up a stain that I ware around
causally. My husband does the wash (No he does not fold) and he pit everything
into the washer and dryer unless I put it aside for hand washing. So it would
have to pass his standard. I did a test to see what would happen with dmc
cotton 12 the wash. I choose the cotton because the top is cotton. After doing
a 8 inch test strip sample of the pattern then I measured it. Height and
width. The srinkage was more heigth than width. Shrinkage was over 10% in
heigth and around 8% in width. I was a little suprised that the shrinkage was
not uniform. I tried ironing it out and it look ok but not as good as the pre
washing. I thought of preshrinking my thread before hand. Have not tried it as
of yet but will. Thinking it would be
better than adjusting the pattern.
Donna near Chicago where fall is
showing its starting to come.
From: vila<[email protected]>
To:
[email protected]
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 12:08 PM
Subject: [lace] to
wash or not to wash?
Hello all
I have a question about washing lace. As a
weaver, I wash all of my woven pieces as part of the finishing process.
Depending on the article this can be a gentle swish in the sink or a complete
wash and dry cycle in by machine.
Is it a common practice to wash a
finished piece of lace or not? I can see some things never being washed, but
other will probably need to be washed sooner or later.
What brings up the
question, is that I'm going to weave a piece of linen fabric for the center of
the linen edging I did. The fabric will be be washed after weaving to be sure
it doesn't shrink later and pucker the lace. I did gently wash the lace and
it changed quite a bit. A good press will make it look better again, but I
now wish I had not washed the lace and took my chances of puckering later. Or
maybe not....
Vila Cox
Warped& Wonderful - Handwoven Treasures
http://www.warpedandwonderful.com
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