Dry Cleaning Silk and Wool
Silk. Wonderful, beautiful, lustrous silk.
It’s expensive to buy and to care for.
WRONG! Treenway Silks of Canada has a great article on caring for silk. Please note the part which reads, Commercial silk garments are marked ‘dry clean only’ as protection for poorly dyed goods more than for the silk.
My mother is a dry cleaner and I used to live in the shop during the summer when I was child. I can’t tell you how many times she told a customer that her solid colored blouse might spot after cleaning and that there was no guarantee that the color would hold. So dry cleaning is still no guarantee that your item will not be ruined.
Washable silk is the way to go if you can find it. If you see something you like that is dry clean only, try to stay away from solid colors which are deep and dark. Those are more likely to have problems with dry cleaning. I’m sure you’ll hear people say that dry cleaning is much better now, dyeing is different, etc, but I’m not so sure. If you buy silk, get patterned stuff which looks busy, or paler colors which will hide variations better.
As for wool. What is wool? It is merely the hair of a sheep. To wash it, just handwash it with a dab of cheap shampoo. No need for fancy wool wash products, and DEFINITELY DO NOT EVER USE WOOLITE. Woolite was specially developed for synthetics, not for actual wool. It has some detergents and chemicals that eat into the natural fibers of wool and protein-based fibers, i.e. silk (see above).
When you wash your wool item the essential thing is to use warm water that’s not hot, and all through the wash process, keep the temperature constant as best you can. The temperature change of hot to cold shocks the wool and makes it felt. Fill your sink and add the soap after its full. Dunk your item under the surface until there are no air bubbles trapped in the garment. Soak your item for 20 minutes in soapy water, and then transfer to bucket. Drain your sink and fill again. Put your item back in. Repeat transferring to a bucket and filling the sink until the water is clean enough for you. Roll up your garment in a towel to soak up excess water. Then lay flat and reshape your item to dry. It takes up to 3 days to dry your item depending on humidity, etc.
I hope this saves everyone some money on their winter sweaters this year.
Caitlin wrote:
I didn’t know that about woolite, good to know.
Posted on 23-Jan-06 at 6:47 pm | Permalink
mapgirl wrote:
Last night I used a special surfactant called Synthrapol to get a fresh bloodstain out. It worked ok, not great, but better than nothing and it saved me from throwing it out. It’s $2.00 for 4ozs and a little dab is all you need.
I could turn that into a post too.
Posted on 24-Jan-06 at 7:35 pm | Permalink
muse wrote:
fantastic, thanks
Posted on 31-Jan-06 at 1:50 pm | Permalink