|
Sewing Textiles - Sewing: clothes, furnishings, costumes, etc.
|
|
|
|
If you were Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options
|
Posted by Trish Brown on November 16, 2005, 5:45 am
Hi everyone!
I've been given a sewing job to do by our parish: they want me to take a
very old altar cloth and cut it into smaller pieces to make usable
handtowels. The cloth I've been given is pure linen and very old but
still in superb condition. The problem is that it's been starched and
starched and starched within an inch of its life! I've washed and rinsed
and agitated the blessed (!) thing, but it's still stiffasaboard and
able to stand up by itself!
Can anyone help me with a method of getting the starch out of the cloth?
AFAIK, the starch used has been the old fashioned 'starch' starch (not
the modern spray-on stuff). You can almost *see* it in the fibres of the
cloth, it's so thick! Is there some substance that will repel or
dissolve starch (aside from good, honest water, that is)?
Looking forward to helpful replies... ;-D
--
Trish
Newcastle, Australia
|
|
Posted by Kate Dicey on November 16, 2005, 5:42 am
Trish Brown wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> Hi everyone!
>
> I've been given a sewing job to do by our parish: they want me to take a
> very old altar cloth and cut it into smaller pieces to make usable
> handtowels. The cloth I've been given is pure linen and very old but
> still in superb condition. The problem is that it's been starched and
> starched and starched within an inch of its life! I've washed and rinsed
> and agitated the blessed (!) thing, but it's still stiffasaboard and
> able to stand up by itself!
>
> Can anyone help me with a method of getting the starch out of the cloth?
> AFAIK, the starch used has been the old fashioned 'starch' starch (not
> the modern spray-on stuff). You can almost *see* it in the fibres of the
> cloth, it's so thick! Is there some substance that will repel or
> dissolve starch (aside from good, honest water, that is)?
>
> Looking forward to helpful replies... ;-D
>
Linen is naturally stiff! If you boil all the starch out of it, it will
STILL go stiff when you press it. The best way to treat it for hand
towels is to press and sew, them dampen down, tumble dry, and fold flat
while hot WITHOUT pressing. You'll get a softly rumpled look rather
than hard creases, and it will be more absorbent. NEVER use fabric
softener on towels: it 'varnishes' them so the fibres shed the water
rather than soaking it up.
--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!
|
|
Posted by Trish Brown on November 17, 2005, 8:55 am
Kate Dicey wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> Linen is naturally stiff! If you boil all the starch out of it, it will
> STILL go stiff when you press it. The best way to treat it for hand
> towels is to press and sew, them dampen down, tumble dry, and fold flat
> while hot WITHOUT pressing. You'll get a softly rumpled look rather
> than hard creases, and it will be more absorbent. NEVER use fabric
> softener on towels: it 'varnishes' them so the fibres shed the water
> rather than soaking it up.
This linen is way past stiff, Kate! It's almost petrified! LOL! I've
been soaking it and rinsing it and it's gradually losing its load of
starch. Hopefully, it'll wind up soft enough to do the nice
hem-stitching I was hoping to achieve...
--
Trish
Newcastle, Australia
|
|
Posted by Elizabeth Young on November 17, 2005, 9:28 am
Trish Brown wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> Kate Dicey wrote:
>
>> Linen is naturally stiff! If you boil all the starch out of it, it
>> will STILL go stiff when you press it. The best way to treat it for
>> hand towels is to press and sew, them dampen down, tumble dry, and
>> fold flat while hot WITHOUT pressing. You'll get a softly rumpled
>> look rather than hard creases, and it will be more absorbent. NEVER
>> use fabric softener on towels: it 'varnishes' them so the fibres shed
>> the water rather than soaking it up.
>
>
> This linen is way past stiff, Kate! It's almost petrified! LOL! I've
> been soaking it and rinsing it and it's gradually losing its load of
> starch. Hopefully, it'll wind up soft enough to do the nice
> hem-stitching I was hoping to achieve...
>
I wonder if you soaked it for a day or so in a large volume of water,
give the starch time to disolve and space to dissapate
liz young
|
|
Posted by joy beeson on November 18, 2005, 10:44 am
On Fri, 18 Nov 2005 00:55:30 +1100, Trish Brown
show/hide quoted text
> This linen is way past stiff, Kate! It's almost petrified! LOL! I've
> been soaking it and rinsing it and it's gradually losing its load of
> starch. Hopefully, it'll wind up soft enough to do the nice
> hem-stitching I was hoping to achieve...
Have you tried boiling it? That's how the starch got in
there in the first place.
Use real soap, not a modern detergent, when washing in very
hot water.
Joy Beeson
--
http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ -- needlework
http://home.earthlink.net/~dbeeson594/ROUGHSEW/ROUGH.HTM
http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ -- Writers' Exchange
joy beeson at earthlink dot net
|
|
|
|
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap
>
> I've been given a sewing job to do by our parish: they want me to take a
> very old altar cloth and cut it into smaller pieces to make usable
> handtowels. The cloth I've been given is pure linen and very old but
> still in superb condition. The problem is that it's been starched and
> starched and starched within an inch of its life! I've washed and rinsed
> and agitated the blessed (!) thing, but it's still stiffasaboard and
> able to stand up by itself!
>
> Can anyone help me with a method of getting the starch out of the cloth?
> AFAIK, the starch used has been the old fashioned 'starch' starch (not
> the modern spray-on stuff). You can almost *see* it in the fibres of the
> cloth, it's so thick! Is there some substance that will repel or
> dissolve starch (aside from good, honest water, that is)?
>
> Looking forward to helpful replies... ;-D
>