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Posted by Juno on June 14, 2006, 12:09 pm
Olwyn Mary wrote:
> I thought I sent this out a few days ago, but it never got to the right
> place, so I'll try again.
>
> I'm crossposting because I don't want to write out the basics twice. My
> friend B had her house completely immersed in water during the levee
> breaks, and it stayed flooded for several weeks. I told her I would
> store anything she could rescue, as she is now living in a FEMA travel
> trailer (that's a very small caravan to the Brits). Until about three
> or four weeks ago, her house still had a coating of thick, sticky mud
> all over, but it had finally dried out when we went over to help last
> week. She brought over some dishes which had survived the swirling
> water, plus a few of her son's autographed concert t-shirts (he is a
> young sound tech) and two unglazed embroidered pictures she had done 30
> years ago when her dh was in grad school, all to be stored in our garden
> shed until she could get back to deal with them.
>
> Dishes which had been on top of the stack had a 1/8 to 1/4 inch coat of
> dried Mississippi mud, plus some white crystalline substance on top. The
> t-shirts were filthy and stinking, and the embroideries were a horrible
> dark greyish brownish color, on which you really could not discern the
> pattern. Naturally, dh and I figured we should do what we could to
> help. I dumped all of the t-shirts - one a bright red but very old one
> - into the washer with cool water and some detergent to soak, then
> carefully ran more cool water into the kitchen sink with just a touch of
> dish liquid, and put the stitchery in that. Went back to the laundry
> and Horrors - the old red, much washed t-shirt was discharging dye like
> crazy!!! Swiftly spun everything out, pulled out that shirt and a black
> one, and started again. Left the shirts to soak, then went back to the
> sink, let the filthy water run away and refilled it. Did that about
> three times, then left the stitchery to soak overnight in plain water.
> Ran the washer again, then left it to soak overnight as well. Next day,
> the stitching was much better, but had a coat of very fine residue on
> it. I took an old, very soft toothbrush, and gently brushed it away
> under water, then left it for further soaking.
>
> When I finally spun out the t-shirts, the poly-cotton blends were fine,
> but the all-cotton ones were disintegrating! Holes all over!!
> Fortunately, the autographs were all still intact and readable, but the
> shirts still smelled musty. Washed the other two, and the red shirt
> came out perfect. The black one, which had an undamaged plastic type
> picture and logo on the front, came out with paler and darker orange
> streaks, as though it had been tie-dyed. (the owner was thrilled!! said
> it looked much better that way than plain black, and has been showing it
> off to all his friends and colleagues.) The shirts still smelled musty,
> so gave them all a coat of Febreeze. Unfortunately I have now done that
> twice, and they still smell a little, but I daren't do anything more
> radical.
>
> After seeing what happened to the shirts, I was in fear and trembling
> over the embroideries. I got them clean enough to see that they were
> two cross-stitch bird pictures, Columbia Minerva 1973, and had been
> stitched with 6-strand floss. However, I reached for my trusty sodium
> perborate, and left them to soak in a weak solution. This improved them
> to the point where the cotton background was a dark beige as though it
> had been tea-dyed, so I decided to try again. Two more soakings in even
> weaker solutions, and it has come out a very pale beige, sort of
> "antique white" and B is delighted. Unfortunately, when they were first
> framed, the framer had stapled foam backing to the back board, then
> taped the fabric over that, and the staples all rusted away into the
> fabric. I tried various items in my little home chemistry set, to no
> avail. Ah well, those rust stains will be hidden when we reframe them
> for her, which we will do with archival materials and a glass front to
> protect them.
>
> (p.s. Yes, we washed the dishes for her as well. After all, she does
> have a full-time job. The ones with thick mud in them got soaked in the
> kitchen sink first, then everything run through the dishwasher on the
> potscrubber cycle. Some took twice through to get clean, others had to
> be scrubbed with mild cleanser after they came out.)
>
> Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.
>
Mary, what a great friend you are! You put in so much time on your help
some-one-out project. I still can't imagine living with that kind of
disaster.did you take pictures, before and after of your cleaning job.
Juno
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