Hey folks! In our last blog, we have briefly touched upon
the 4 ways to care cotton fabric and talked in depth about the cotton, its
evolution, its properties, types etc. The reason was to know your fabric before
you can start caring about them. Now this piece will briefly touch upon the
ways you can wash your cotton fabric.
Normally its not a science. Most of the manufacturers give
instructions as how to wash and care for the fabric. Yet they may not be
complete for wanting of the space! Its always a good idea to acquaint some basic
principles that can be selectively use for different kind of fabric(apparels and furnishing) rather than knowing each and every detail for each
and every kind of fabric!
Fabric often gets stained because of greases, oil,
waxes, polluted chemicals present in the atmosphere and dyes. The aim of the
fabric care, thus is two folds:
1-
Removing the pollutants
2-
Ironing to remove the wrinkles and bring
freshness to the fabric
Fabric care is the joint responsibility of you and your
cleaning agent.
Washing your Cotton Fabric
A - Spotting the spots
1-
Identify the area that needs special attention.
Usually its neck, underarms and cuffs that need bit more rubbing. So before
washing, check these spots.
2-
Check if the fabric has some embellished (beads,
graphics, zari, glitter etc). This area needs to pull inside out while washing.
3-
Categorize your cotton fabric as “All white
cotton” or “Dyed cotton”. Dyed cotton can also be thought as printed, graphed
etc. Aim is to wash all white cotton and rest of the clothes separately. You
can have multiple batching of the clothes depending upon the need.
B - Choose the detergent
1-
General purpose detergent works well for cotton
fabric and most of the fabric. We need to see of there is any scum or leftover
on the fabric.
2-
Check whether your detergent is mild or harsh.
One good domestic way is to dissolve the recommended (normally given on the
wrappers) quantity of detergent in 900 ml of cold water and allow the detergent
and water to sit for 24 hours. Note if there is a residue settled in the bottom
of the container. Now if it happens, then be sure that these residues are not
going to be washed easily and often they will leave the whitish stain on the fabric.
They are called as scum.
3-
Choose the detergent which leaves no such scum.
Don’t settle for low quality detergents.
C - Bleaching of white
stained Cotton Fabric
One of the important characteristic of cotton fabric is that
it can be bleached easily and retain that saints look for years. Hydrogen
peroxide is a great bleaching agent. But Chlorine bleach is normally
recommended for cotton fabric.
1- Take around 4 liters of semi hot water. Make
sure that water is hot enough to clean but not hot enough to damage the fabric.
Ideally you should be able to insert your finger to judge that temperature of
the water. Mix a cup of dry dishwasher soap and add 1/3 cup of bleaching agent.
Ensure that the mixing of this is not taking place in a metal container.
2- Put all the stained white clothes in small
batches in this mixture and allow the fabric to soak the bleaching water. Do
not agitate or rub at this moment, just allow them to soak.
3- Remove the clothes in 30-40 minutes depending
upon the intensity of the stained. In any way not more than 40 minutes.
4- After 30-40 minutes, put the fabric immediately
into washing machine without rinsing the bleached fabric. Add some washing
detergent, on your washing machine and when its about to reach the rinse cycle
add a 2/3rd of White vinegar (or distilled vinegar or virgin
vinegar). Let machine completes its washing. Dry the fabric after wash in
clothing lines or washing machine. But make sure that you still put the clothes
in clothing lines even if you dried in machine. Sun rays are so essential to
fabric! Allow them to breath in fresh air.
5- White vinegar is essentially a distilled form of
vinegar that is a mixture of acetic acid and water. It’s a common household,
economical liquid and environment friendly. It kills all the bacteria, fungi
and moulds from the fabric.
D - Other batch of CottonFabric
1- Wash
cotton fabric either in machine or hand wash. Use lukewarm water and laundry
detergent.
2- Irrespective
of the fact that you are washing in machine, soak the clothes for 30 minutes in
a non metallic container with the detergent.
3- Rub
those spotted stained parts after 30 minutes. It may not be clean but at least
you have agitated the dirt agents and they are more likely to adhere with the
detergent while washed in a machine.
4- While
soaking the embellished clothes and fabric pull them inside out. Don’t rub them
hard, either don’t rub or rub very very gently.
5- Make
sure that you rinse properly. This consumes more water than that required for
washing. So please make sure that you utilize the water. Rinsing is an act of
allowing the detergent to wash away taking dirt along.
6- Machine
dried clothes should also be dried under the sky for a while.
Cotton fabric are breathing fabric, the care as you have seen so far is not difficult. We all wish to care our fabric not only for its durable use but also to get a fresh feel away from pollution every time we wear. So why not we get more out of our efforts and make our fabric safe in our hands!!
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