Handloom Silk Fabric Care by Folksmarket.com

Silk, not only, a smooth fabric but it also has inherent luster in it. Washing a silk fabric therefore requires bit more care than for any other fabric. But its not difficult as silk has in built tendency to repel the dirt and not always require the dry cleaning.

The below checks and process, if followed, can help sustaining the delicacy of the silk fabric and increase its life.

First of all make sure to read the instructions given in each fabric by the manufacturing group. If it says Dry Clean Only, then do not compromise or idle and get it dry clean only. If it says handwash, it must be washed by hand only, no machine wash. If the instructions permits the machine wash, even then, always prefer hand-wash.

Sometimes the instructions may not be there. At that time, you must check it on your own to confirm if you need to dry wash it or will the hand-wash do. So our step by step clothing will start from here only.

Step 1: Check color fastness of the silk fabric.

Rub the hidden part of the silk with each other and ascertain whether the color is transferring or not. If the color is transferring, make sure to dry clean it. If no transfer, you should go ahead and hand clean it.

Step 2: Shaking off

Shake off the silk fabric lightly to remove any dirt and crumbs of pollutants. The bigger and lighter dirt will be removed upto an extent and now you can go ahead and wash away more stubborn dirt.

Step 3: Choose the detergent

Go for a mild detergent. In India, you may wish to go for Baby Soap from Johnson and Johnson or Ariel Oxyblu . Abroad you may choose to Woolite or Dr Bronner’s baby soap. If none of them is available, you may choose any mild shampoo or baby soap.

Step 4: Soaking:

Soak the silk fabric in lukewarm water for 5-7 minutes. Avoid using hot water as it will brittle the fabric and may fade the luster, silk fabric is known for. Sometime the extreme temperature water may also stretch or shrink the fabric if the fabric, while manufacturing, was not shrunk.

Step 5: Rubbing stains

Gently rub the stains after soaking the fabric for 5-7 minutes. Do not rub it too hard to avoid damage. Also rub the stains in circular motions going inside from the circumference. This will likely to bring all the dirt together at one place which then can be washed off easily.

Step 6: Rinse and rinse again

Rinse the fabric till the time all the soap is not removed from the fabric. Rinse well so that no soap scum remains in the fabric to damage it. One smart idea is to take ¼ cup of vinegar mixed water and rinse the fabric. Vinegar will remove any soap-scum. Finally rinse with cold water.

Step 7: Do not wring or twist the fabric

Remember not to shake off the fabric to remove water. Do not twist the fabric to rid water off. Instead take a cotton towel, spread the fabric over it, and roll the towel up. The cotton towel will absorb the excess water from the fabric. There will be delicate wringing but that’s alright. Leave the fabric for sometime wrapped in towel. This will absorb good amount of water.

Step 8: Dry and iron it

The final step is to dry the fabric in a clothing line under shade. Do not expose it in sunlight as the sunlight makes the fabric fragile. Sometimes it is a nice idea to keep the towel wrapped fabric inside the refrigerator for 40-45 minutes. This will prevent the drying of the natural oil of the fabric.

Iron it using the silk indicator or very lightly warm iron. Its better not to connect the silk fabric directly with the iron. Use press cloth instead.

Follow the above instructions to care your silk fabric. Don’t forget that the silk is a natural fibre that requires your tender attention. Never use chlorine bleach as the protein fibre (silk fibre) will be damaged by this.

How to wash your Handloom Cotton Fabric - Folksmarket.com

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 2/3^rd 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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