The person who posted the original question cross-posted it to alt.fashion as well as alt.sewing. I would bet that the majority of people who actually read the original post were reading it via alt.fashion and, although we are major consumers of sewn products, we do not all sew. (BTW, I am a hell of a cook but I would never chastise someone for mentioning that she bought something at a bakery.)
This remark had me going until I checked the headers and saw that this thread is cross posted to alt.fashion.
Where I'd never hang out -- I sew for the sole purpose of staying *out* of fashion.
Well, I don't own a wool skirt -- but I was very, very sorry when I took a good wool skirt to the cleaners back in 1962. The shoved it into a press and pressed it full of wrinkles; it looked *much* nicer after I hand-washed it the next time it got dirty. And, of course, I never took my other wool skirt to the cleaners.
Good wool pants? Two pairs, both machine washable. (I don't machine dry *anything* -- though I get DH's shirts hot and steamy in the dryer before shaking them out and drying them on hangers.)
Blazer -- probably wouldn't, if I owned one. I don't wash my fur-collared long coat -- but it hasn't been dry cleaned either. Only had it ten years, it isn't dirty yet.
Velvet? I wouldn't make something that got dirty out of velvet.
Leather: that's what my bike shorts are lined with. I also machine-wash my leather-palm gloves (but never use detergent, and rub them with olive oil afterward). I hand-wash shoes and the like when the occasion arises. Mostly I just dust them off, or rub with a damp rag. Ordinary dry cleaning would ruin leather.
Real-silk satin? That's what the pockets in aforementioned machine-washable wool pants are made of.
Except for ceremonial clothing such as business suits, a "dry-clean only" label is a confession of poor workmanship or inferior material.
Joy Beeson
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 01:41:49 GMT, "Angrie.Woman" choked out these words:
yeah. imagine *my* shock! 8D
david
The first dress I ever made (in 1968) was a really nice teal wool. I had it dry cleaned before I wore it. Never got to wear it - they shrunk it.
Sharon
I sew so that I can have the latest trends if I want them, without having to order online and find out it doesn't fit right......my city isn't up to date, its about a year behind usually.
Michelle Giordano
This is why the good sewing instructors say to clean the fabric before cutting it. They include dry cleaning for fabrics/garments that will be dry cleaned when constructed, but if you wash your wool or silk or rayon or whatever you plan to use before cutting, you can avoid shrinkage and save your hair. Assuming you react like I do and rip it out in frustration. ;-)
For natural fibers, I use shampoo. I often use some cream rinse or conditioner in the rinse water. You do want to use the most gentle methods for wools and silks. For wool, don't shock it. It is more important to have all your water temperatures - for washes and rinses - the same than it is to use cold or cool water. Then, don't agitate. Just lift the fabric from the wash water, and let it sink through again. Don't wring. You can lay it out on towels and roll it up and squeeze, but don't wring.
The wool washing instructions can be applied to finished garments, but if the fabric has never been washed before, there may be some shrinkage. Sometimes, this is an advantage, if you have lost weight or bought something a bit too large but love it too much to return it.
Is that one of the 43?
Why?
A
Shampoo is formulated specifically to clean animal fiber. So, it's an excellent choice for wool, and even silk. I don't use it for cotton, rayon, Tencel, ramie - even though those are also natural fibers. There are folks who use horse shampoo instead, but I always have plenty of shampoo around - often some that I didn't like for my hair, or the little bottles from hotels, that work just fine for washing wools.
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 13:00:14 -0700, Pogonip choked out these words:
i don't get it.
In yet _another_ newsgroup, I postulated that there are actually only
143 people posting in Usenet. One hundred of them are spammers.
I meant "Why Conditioner?" :)
A
I was behind a woman at the dry cleaners last week and her order took soooooooo long for the cashier to sort out. She had 28 pieces and most of them were jeans. The owner complained about how she'd turned in so much cotton to be clean. I got the impression that the customer didn't have a washer and dryer---like maybe she'd just moved in to town and was staying with a friend and wasn't allowed to hike up their water bill with all of her laundry/bathing/dishwashing needs. I've heard of hanging your jeans to dry so that they don't shrink, but I found it odd that she wanted her denim dry cleaned.
JN
On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 17:29:00 -0700, Pogonip choked out these words:
you may be right. i may be crazy. you may be wrong, for all i know, but you may be right.
(sorry, i couldn't help it.)
david
Oooops! Well, it works sort of like fabric softner. It makes the wool feel really soft and silky. At least, as much as that particular yarn and weave will allow. Try it on some scraps, and I think you'll see what I mean.
Billy, is that you??? ;-)
I much prefer Dr. Wilensky's theory: We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.
Our dry cleaner does regular luandry too, And they charge you by the pound. I have never used their service, but my husband's bachelor friend does his laundry that way. And if my washer died, I'd probably rather do that than sit at the laundromat.
AI read somewhere that you can cut off, then re-attach the original hem. I can't imagine how this works. I usually just cut and hem, and don't worry too much about it. I don't think anyone really notices.
NM
"EMiriamD" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:
ah ha! notice the crossposting? :) i don't expect all the folks into fashion to sew (but they'd get unique clothing that fits well if they did ).
um, yes, as a matter of fact, i would machine wash all those fabrics, some more carefully than ohers, but all can be machine washed (leather being the trickiest, but regular dry cleaning ruins leather, too). if you sew, you can pre-wash your fashion fabric... most bought clothes that say 'dry clean only' are washable *but* they probably weren't properly preshrunk or have trim items, linings or facings that may not have been preshrunk. lee
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