I thought since this is my knitting blog, and since I like to knit fibers that are typically dry clean only that I’d write a little about the alternatives to dry cleaning. One is wet cleaning, which is the industrial environmental friendly version of dry cleaning, it uses clamps, water jets, detergent jets and steam the clamps are to keep the garment in shape so that it can’t shrink out of shape. Doesn’t work for everything but does a pretty good job when it does work. I wouldn’t say that it’s environmentally friendly though because it does use lots of water and the detergents are jacked up versions of your household laundry soap. Solvents are still used for spot treatment, so maybe it’s just environmentally friendlier than dry cleaning.The other method is screen washing, which is better known as Chinese laundry. That’s where the garment is layed out on a screen or a frame and a water based solution is pressed through the garment with sponges.
First all the buttons are removed and then there’s a spot treatment. Spots are washed from the inside out prior to the whole washing, so they are marked with chalk and dealt with from the wrong side of the fabric (in theory to push the soil out from the direction it came) the best trick was to use table salt and rubbing alcohol to remove grease stains from cotton dress shirts, the key was using an ice cube as the scrubber instead of a finger or brush. After the spot treatment then it goes to whole wash on another frame.
The solution used depends on the fiber content. For silk it’s usually a mix of mild soft (potash) soap and some lavendar smell, rinsed with just water. For wool it’s a mild lye soap, then salt water (laundry salt aka Borax), then clean water and per the customers request a conditioner of lanolin or almond. Plant materials like cotton, ramie, linen etc get a water soluable detergent (which won’t damage them like potash and lye soaps will), a salt rinse, then a conditioning rinse that usually has a small amount of starch added. For each stage a clean sponge (big old sea sponges) is used to press the solution through the garment and then out as much as possible.
In a laundry the ambient room temperature is uncomfortably hot which would be miserable unless your arms are plunged into cold water for 8-10 hours a day (which ours were) and dehumidifiers run constantly. Ideally nothing is hung up until it’s pressed, the garments lay flat separated by warm dry towels, or rolled (jelly roll style) with a towel but not hung up. When the cloth is just damp from it’s taken to be pressed, mens suits and shirts are done on pressing machines– every thing else is ironed by hand with an iron and pressing cloth, and sweaters are not pressed at all but put on the puffer (a screen with a fan under it blowing up through the sweater.) With any luck at this point someone will remember to sew the buttons back on.
It’s been a long time since I’ve worked in a laundry, but I think washing things (especially my own creations) this way is soothing. There’s a rhythm to it, it’s economical (financially as well as enviromentally) and gives me the chance to really slow down and re-appreciate my creations.
Just as a side note, at the laundry one of the managers would come out of her office and scream at us that if we (all the current employees on the floor, about a half dozen) were not like sons and daughters to her personally we’d all be fired instantly for our sloth. About an hour later the same manager would come out and yell out that we were working too hard and she’d die if any one of her children were sent to the hospital due to exhaustion. Later in the night she’d come out again and say we were then working too fast to have done any washing and that we’d have to be more diligent.
At times she’d make us all march (yes, march) down the street and back because we needed the air and rest. After working her shifts for a few weeks it was hard for anyone to feel that their job was ever in danger, or to suppress laughter longer than it took for her to retreat back to her office. On an employees birthday there was always a cookie at the person’s station, followed by extra screaming throughout the night. I think deep down most of us had some affection for her, at least those of us that chose the evening and night shifts when she was in charge.
It’s hard to explain; it wasn’t despite the yelling and marching– you had to like, if not outright love or adore her, on some level because of it.
Okay, maybe we can skip loss of bladder control. I did dig out some of my vintage aprons and hang them on the wall, after cleaning the closet.
This is from a slightly different angle. So cheesy or cute? Or cheesy cute?
