The term thread count is a measurement of the number of vertical and horizontal threads in a square inch of fabric. Continue reading
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Category Archives: Fabric Care and Facts
Bad Fabric Day
It isn’t just hair that has bad days, fabric can have a bad day too. Do you see the photo above? That is a perfect example of a textile disaster. What appears to be just a ragged scrap of fabric was, just moments before, a beautiful cotton batiste nightgown. And what, pray tell, could have befallen such a beautiful garment? My daughters’ Siberian Husky, Tundra. Dogs and fabrics don’t generally do well together and this is a perfect example. Apparently, it was hanging on the back of the closet door where I had left it earlier in the morning and Tundra had decided that it would be better as a play toy than a nightgown. My daughter apologized and offered to buy me a new nightgown, preferably one from Victoria’s Secret. She said Tundra did me a favor by shredding this old fashioned granny nightgown adding that it looked like something out of “Little House on the Prairie”. I loved that show and by the way, I really liked that nightgown too! Poor fabric.
Velcro
In 1948 a Swiss mountaineer and inventor came back from a walk only to find his clothes and dog covered in burs. George de Mestral looked at the burrs under a microscope and discovered that the hard stiff hooks of the burrs clung to the soft fabric of his pants. He decided he would invent a product that would do the same thing and and invented velcro, a product to rival the zipper. The name Velco is the combination of of the words velour and crochet. His product was patented in 1955.
General Cleaning Instructions
Cleaning Instructions
You might be afraid to use your Grandmother’s tablecloth for the holidays
but don’t be afraid to use these beautiful tablecloths. They are easy to
launder and care for. Just follow the easy washing instructions listed on each
tablecloth description page as well as the printed instructions sent with your
tablecloth.
Basic Instructions:
Cool to warm water. Mild Detergent – Wisk works just fine.
For stubborn grease spots spray with a 50/50 mixture of “Simple Green” and water and let sit for 5 minutes before washing.
Warm Dry
Take out of dryer immediately to reduce wrinkles. This is a good rule for all your laundry items.
Cool to warm iron if necessary.
Fold or hang to store and your tablecloth will be ready when you are inspired to have a party!
Printed Fabric
The Darcy pattern shown here is a classic “medallion” or “frame” pattern. Typically this pattern is woven in the fabric and is known as a damask or Jacquard . It is very difficult to get the crisp contrast of intense color on a white background with a woven fabric due to the cross color threads inherent in the weaving process. We liked the pattern so much that we converted it to a printed pattern. By printing this pattern on white taffeta, we get a very clean crisp look that would not be possible if the pattern were woven. We printed this pattern in three colors: black on white, apple green on white and garnet red on white. Each color way is striking and makes a fabulous tablecloth statement. When washing, drying and ironing printed patterns it is important not to exceed the heat setting originally used to set the print on the fabric. Although the manufactured heat setting is quite high it is possible to exceed that temperature with an iron. What happens? You can actually unset the ink on the fabric causing the ink to smear. Although difficult to do to professionally printed fabric it is much easier to smear the ink on T-shirts that have been printed. It is impossible to fix this smear as when the ink cools it sets again. Please don’t set you iron on high for printed ink items. And of course the other reason not to use an iron that is too hot is that it will just burn your fabric! All good reasons not to iron your cloths. I’m just saying!!!
Mildow and Mold – Yuk!
OUR TRUSTY LAUNDRY DEPARTMENT WANTS TO REMIND YOU TO PLEASE USE OUR LAUNDRY BAGS. THE MOLD AND MILDEW SEASON IS IN HIGH GEAR IF THE TABLECLOTHS ARE WET DO NOT PACK THEM – LET THEM AIR OUT PLEASE.
This is true for all of your vacation cloths that you are packing up quickly when leaving the beach or the lake. Don’t mix the wet with the dry and please try to dry out the wet suits and towels. Even if you don’t grow mold we all know that stinky moldy smell that is so hard to get out of your cloths.
Tip#1. Try rewashing the stinkin moldy and smelly T shirts with some baking soda in the wash and follow up with Febreze.
Sparklers and Tablecloths are never friends!
Please, Please and more Please. Do not use sparklers around tablecloths. Nothing good ever comes from this activity as you can see from the above photos. People stick the flaming hot torches into their food or the centerpieces and them let them burn and spark onto the fabric resulting in textile disaster. Sometimes, they just lay the searing hot metal sticks right onto the tablecloth. What are they thinking? I have no words for this behavior, although moron comes to mind.
Also, as most of the guests will the flitting about in lightweight and expensive fabrics that will also burn and go up in flames, the textile disaster continues. This is not good, as no one wants to see a Vera Wang wedding dress all dotted with little burn holes from the $2.00 sparkler that the little flower girl was holding just inches from the bride. How cute – how very expensive!
If you feel you need sparklers – take them far, far away from anything flammable, like fabric. They can be a fire hazard to any event.
Be Nice to Someone Today!
Annie
Grease Spots!
Don’t you hate it when you get all the dirt and grime off the tablecloth or any fabric for that matter and there it sits, a dark stain of grease that just won’t come out, no matter how often you wash that fabric.
Well, here are a few suggestions.
#1.Try Simple Green – you can spray it directly on the spot or put a cup of it in the washer. It is a de-greaser and it won’t foam up in the machines causing a bubbling cascade of soap foaming out of the washer. We have found this to be quite successful with our polyester fabrics.
If it is just a small spot you can try the dish washing liquid Dawn. However, it loves to make foam and you should thoroughly rinse the fabric in the sink before putting it back in the washer.
This just in from a friend who is a masseuse and has a ton of towels covered in massage oil. He suggests using the Liquid Cascade Gel with Dawn. It is a dish washing detergent that comes with Dawn already in it. He says it won’t over foam as it is made for the dishwasher. And we all know what happens when that machine gets a little too foamy, we are washing the kitchen floor for the entire evening and using the snow shovel to get rid of the foam. Not that it has happened to me, at least not recently.
Important if you try the Cascade with Dawn for getting out grease on fabric make sure you DO NOT USE THE BLEACH FORMULA. You will be very sad-you won’t have a grease stains but you won’t have any color either.
If you have any other ideas on getting rid of grease stains. Send them along.
Thanks and remember,
Be nice to someone today!
Annie
Passementerie
I just love saying this word. It sounds so smart. Passementerie! It’s french, but of course, darling. It means, ornamental trimming for a garment, such as braiding, lace, or metallic beads. It’s all that good stuff we love to add to our clothing, drapery and anything else we can stitch, glue or staple it on to.
KNOW YOUR TRIMS
• Gimp, the narrowest of the flat trims, traditionally is used to cover upholstery tacks. It can also embellish raised designs and may have a decorative cord or be woven into a pattern. Shell gimp has a scalloped edge that allows it to follow the curves of the furniture.
• Braid, tape, and galloon are simply wider versions of gimp and can either be woven flat or done in raised openwork. They are often used to edge draperies, valances, cornices, bed linens, and the skirts of upholstered furniture.
• Piping or welting consists of a cord covered with fabric that is cut on the bias to add flexibility. It could also be covered with braid. Piping or welting is often sewn into the seams of cushions or pillows and used to cover upholstery tacks.
• Cord consists of plied yarns twisted together into a rope. The edge of a plain tape may be sewn to the cord so it can be inserted into the seams of upholstery in place of piping. Cords often edge wall upholstery, draperies, and valances or serve as festoons over swags.
• Borders are flat-weave trims similar to gimp and braid but are wider, measuring up to 6 inches.
• Fringe has a decorative heading, with hanging threads, cords, or tassels. The threads can be cut, looped, or twisted, as in a bullion, or they may support beads, tassels, or even shells. Fringe is inserted in the seams of cushions and pillows or hung from the edges of draperies, lampshades, window shades, table skirts, cornices, swags, and jabots.
It’s all passementerie, my dear.
No more wrinkles.
This is one of my mangle ironers. It is also know as a flatwork ironer. You might remember the smaller home version of this if your grandmother had one. You insert the wet wrinkled tablecloth onto the rolling belts. It then rolls through a series of smaller rollers and then over one large steel drum that is heated from the inside by jets of flame. It comes out the bottom dry and ironed. It is a simple but indispensable piece of equipment for anyone with a large laundry. You can operate yourself if you are doing small items like pillow cases (who doesn’t love an ironed pillow case?) or napkins. However, on larger items like tablecloths and sheets it is a two man operation as you have to spread open the fabric full width. I tried to do my sheets one Saturday all by myself. It didn’t work out so well. First, my arms are too short to hold open a king size sheet. Second, I could not insert the one side of the sheet and then run fast enough to the other side to get it into the machine before it all started to wrinkled up. Third, when you fold it small enough to get it into the machine with your slow, short arms it is so thick that it takes about 10 runs through the rollers to dry it. I sleep on wrinkled sheets.
Of course you could always use one of these I suppose.
