Post Katrina Testile Restoration

I thought I sent this out a few days ago, but it never got to the right place, so I'll try again.

I'm crossposting because I don't want to write out the basics twice. My friend B had her house completely immersed in water during the levee breaks, and it stayed flooded for several weeks. I told her I would store anything she could rescue, as she is now living in a FEMA travel trailer (that's a very small caravan to the Brits). Until about three or four weeks ago, her house still had a coating of thick, sticky mud all over, but it had finally dried out when we went over to help last week. She brought over some dishes which had survived the swirling water, plus a few of her son's autographed concert t-shirts (he is a young sound tech) and two unglazed embroidered pictures she had done 30 years ago when her dh was in grad school, all to be stored in our garden shed until she could get back to deal with them.

Dishes which had been on top of the stack had a 1/8 to 1/4 inch coat of dried Mississippi mud, plus some white crystalline substance on top. The t-shirts were filthy and stinking, and the embroideries were a horrible dark greyish brownish color, on which you really could not discern the pattern. Naturally, dh and I figured we should do what we could to help. I dumped all of the t-shirts - one a bright red but very old one

- into the washer with cool water and some detergent to soak, then carefully ran more cool water into the kitchen sink with just a touch of dish liquid, and put the stitchery in that. Went back to the laundry and Horrors - the old red, much washed t-shirt was discharging dye like crazy!!! Swiftly spun everything out, pulled out that shirt and a black one, and started again. Left the shirts to soak, then went back to the sink, let the filthy water run away and refilled it. Did that about three times, then left the stitchery to soak overnight in plain water. Ran the washer again, then left it to soak overnight as well. Next day, the stitching was much better, but had a coat of very fine residue on it. I took an old, very soft toothbrush, and gently brushed it away under water, then left it for further soaking.

When I finally spun out the t-shirts, the poly-cotton blends were fine, but the all-cotton ones were disintegrating! Holes all over!! Fortunately, the autographs were all still intact and readable, but the shirts still smelled musty. Washed the other two, and the red shirt came out perfect. The black one, which had an undamaged plastic type picture and logo on the front, came out with paler and darker orange streaks, as though it had been tie-dyed. (the owner was thrilled!! said it looked much better that way than plain black, and has been showing it off to all his friends and colleagues.) The shirts still smelled musty, so gave them all a coat of Febreeze. Unfortunately I have now done that twice, and they still smell a little, but I daren't do anything more radical.

After seeing what happened to the shirts, I was in fear and trembling over the embroideries. I got them clean enough to see that they were two cross-stitch bird pictures, Columbia Minerva 1973, and had been stitched with 6-strand floss. However, I reached for my trusty sodium perborate, and left them to soak in a weak solution. This improved them to the point where the cotton background was a dark beige as though it had been tea-dyed, so I decided to try again. Two more soakings in even weaker solutions, and it has come out a very pale beige, sort of "antique white" and B is delighted. Unfortunately, when they were first framed, the framer had stapled foam backing to the back board, then taped the fabric over that, and the staples all rusted away into the fabric. I tried various items in my little home chemistry set, to no avail. Ah well, those rust stains will be hidden when we reframe them for her, which we will do with archival materials and a glass front to protect them.

(p.s. Yes, we washed the dishes for her as well. After all, she does have a full-time job. The ones with thick mud in them got soaked in the kitchen sink first, then everything run through the dishwasher on the potscrubber cycle. Some took twice through to get clean, others had to be scrubbed with mild cleanser after they came out.)

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary
Loading thread data ...

Wow, incredible care put into this. I would never have thought that weak solutions would have much effect. And I'm jealous of those concert T-shirts! :-) Great work. Pora

Reply to
wurstergirl

Mary, what a great friend you are! You put in so much time on your help some-one-out project. I still can't imagine living with that kind of disaster.did you take pictures, before and after of your cleaning job. Juno

Reply to
Juno

Weaker solutions for a longer time are MUCH safer than stronger ones for a shorter time. Strong solutions can eat fabric fast - just as they did the all-cotton shirts. Those shirts, BTW, had been tightly packed in a dresser drawer and only exposed to the flood waters which seeped through everything. The only way B could get them was by tugging hard on the drawer handle, whereupon the drawer front came away in her hands and she was able reach in. Her own clothes which had been hanging in her closet were irretrievable, the rush of water had knocked the rods down and everything sat on the floor in the "toxic soup" for weeks before the water was able to be pumped out of the town.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary

Juno wrote:>>

did you take pictures, before and after of your cleaning job.

No, I didn't think to take pictures, I just wanted to see if I could help out.

p.s. gentle hint: Mary is my midle name, my first name is Olwyn, pronouncd OLL-win.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary

Dear Olwyn Mary, Thanks for setting me straight. I love your name. Those of us who have unusual names have to stand up and say this is my name. I don't like it at all when people insist on calling me June. Juno

Reply to
Juno

Olwyn Mary:

You might want to try this option on the t-shirts that still smell musty. I've never tried it, but was just reading the newsletter from a local healthfood store.

formatting link
I'm in the area in New England that just recovered from flooding last month, of course nothing like NO. Joy

Say Toodle-Oooh to Mold and Mildew

Summertime: Time to grow mold and mildew, which are hard to get rid of. To kill the awful stuff, put two cups apple cider vinegar into a spray bottle, add 20 drops grapefruit seed extract, 20 drops tea tree oil and 20 drops lavender. Shake to mix and spray affected object. (I used this mixture to spray upholstered furniture, inside dresser drawers and an oriental rug.) No need to rinse. How does it smell? Well, when I treated furniture we inherited, my husband threw open windows and threatened to take off for parts unknown. But the smell does dissipate in hours (or days if, as I did the first time, you use more tea tree oil than you should). How many applications? Sometimes once does the trick. Sometimes several times are needed.

Tea tree oil is said to kill most mold families it contacts. Grapefruit seed extract was originally used by farmers to kill the mold and mildew found on their equipment. And it's said to fight over 100 different strains of yeast and fungus inside and outside our bodies - which is a different kettle of fish than killing mold and mildew on inanimate objects. Apple cider vinegar also is good for destroying fungi in our bodies. It's the malic acid that does the trick, I'm told.

What do you do with this mixture if you don't use it up? Store in spray bottle for next time.

Reply to
Joy

I just wanted to point out my "blond-ness", when I read the title I thought of something completley different than fabrics LOL. I thought maybe it was a spammer, but I read it anyways. Its nice to see that you are such a great friend by helping out.

But, um, is it spelled textile or testile, because now I am not to sure anymore.

Thanks!

Michelle Giordano

Reply to
Doug&Michelle

WOW!! How on earth did that typo get past all of us?????? Textiles, of course.

Olwyn mary in New Orleans.

Reply to
Olwyn Mary

"Textile" is correct, and "too" not "to" in this case. FYI. ;-)

Beverly

Reply to
BEI Design

Thanks, I can't believe it did that, I am usually the spelling police.

At least now I do know that I wasn't crazy about the whole testile thing....

Michelle Giordano

Reply to
Doug&Michelle

When I first saw this subject line, "testicle" was how my mind parsed it. I was sure it was going to be an "enlargement" spam. :-|

Beverly

Reply to
BEI Design

Me too, but I was wondering if the hurricane had somehow affected Austin TX (where Lance lives).

--Karen D. that would be the yellow jersey guy

Reply to
Veloise

Unless Austin got loads of evacuees, I don't think it was affected at all, maybe some rain. Houston is much closer to the Gulf than Austin. Where I live, a little less than 100 miles from Austin, in the N W part of the Houston area, was not affected very much at all by Katrina. In fact, this past Monday, we had more rain than during Katrina and Rita. Emily

Reply to
CypSew

InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.