Sanity check: laundering linen?

[jducoeur]

I've finally finished unpacking everything from Pennsic, and today is quiet enough to be largely dedicated to laundry. But I am suddenly butting up against yet another of those moments where I realize that I don't know how my life works. Specifically: how does one wash linen?

My Pennsic garb is heavily linen -- after all, when dealing with the heat of Pennsic, why would one wear anything else? (This is why you see me in so much medieval garb at Pennsic. My Renaissance outfits are mostly cotton; my medieval ones are in many cases head-to-toe linen, and much more comfy in the heat and humidity.) So I have an entire hamper made of nothing else. The articles and colors vary wildly, but all of it is linen.

But of course, Jane used to do all the laundry, and I've never washed this stuff. So I'll toss the question out to the network: what should I do or not do? My instinct is that machine-washing on delicate is probably okay. (Should I get some Woolite or such instead of using ordinary detergent?) Not sure whether it is appropriate to tumble dry on a cool setting, or whether it all needs to be hung to dry. I'm not terribly worried about it wrinkling (it's linen -- wrinkles are a feature), and I'm not *too* worried about wear, since I wear each of these outfits only a couple of times a year. I am a great believer in the principle that linen is at its best when it is a little worn, and the fabric starts to relax.

So: opinions? I'm flying blind here, so words from the fabric geeks would be welcome...

Comments

[calygrey.livejournal.com]

I'm *so* glad I'm not the only one getting to Pennsic laundry only this week (actually, one of the bags was hidden...).

Linen is easy, wash it however you like, no need for the delicate cycle. I wash them on medium and dry them on medium. Do whites and colors separately though. Since it's been awhile, you might want to run them through twice.

Washing Linen

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

Me, I wash mine in cold or cool water, like colors together, and then either hang them up to dry or run them through the dryer until they are nearly dry. If the pieces have been washed often enough, they won't run (much), which is why I use the cool water and ALWAYS use Shout color-catcher cloths. Most important in my experience -- take them out as soon as they finish washing. The colors will bleed onto one another as much from the clothes sitting on each other wet than from the loose dye in the wash floating around and settling back on something.

(Good question. I had to think about it, since it's been a while since I washed more than one piece in a standard load.)

Re: Washing Linen

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

Weird. I never have problems with linen running.

Re: Washing Linen

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

Not even red? Lucky you...

Re: Washing Linen

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

Ah... you know I don't have any red linen, in part because I don't believe I could get the reds I like to actually take to linen using the dyes available in my period. (Linen is not terribly dye friendly.)

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

Plain linen can pretty much be washed just like cotton. Linen takes heat pretty well even.

I tend to wash linen on delicate & hang to dry to extend the life of the fabric, but, it's not nearly as difficult as wool. I use regular detergent even.

I've been told that oxyclean will destroy linen. I haven't tested it myself.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

I disagree that you should hang linen to dry. I find it gets very "boardy" when you do that.

Just regular machine wash (no need for the gentle cycle), like colors together, regular detergent, and tumble dry on low. Remove from the dryer promptly.

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

It does get "boardy" but I then iron it. That said, I have some linen dresses with wool trim, so, there's some conflict in my garb fibers.

[unicornpearlz.livejournal.com]

I wash linen cold/cold and dry until it's almost dry and hang up to lessen wrinkles.

[cellio]

I treat linen the same as my other normal clothes -- machine-wash on normal (lights and darks separate), dry on medium heat, remove and fold promptly.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I'm in the same camp, but it should be noted that it depends how the linen was treated prior to turning it into a garment.

If you're (Justin) sure she threw it into the wash, then go ahead and do that, ditto the dryer.

(When I'm prepping linen for sewing, I wash and dry it on hot a couple of times, and then step back to medium when the garment is done. If I feel like line-drying it, I'll often set it to tumble at low afterwards to remove the stiffness.)

[cellio]

Oh, good point! I always wash fabric before turning it into clothes, so it never occurred to me that that might not have been the case. Hmm. (As a data point: I'm pretty incompetent at sewing and don't enjoy it much, so I out-source as much as I can, but even I learned that clue from my sewing friends.)

Jane strikes me as someone too practical-minded to be willing to sign up for a lifetime of hand-washing by not pre-washing fabric. Did she make the garb? If not, do you know who did?

[jducoeur]

No -- all of it is "store-bought" from various vendors at Pennsic. I'm pretty sure she machine-washed it (hand-washing has always been rare for us), but less sure about drying: she hung dry and/or ironed a fair amount...

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

I treat linen like I do my other clothing - heck the more you wash it the softer it becomes...only thing I do is I pre-wash it before making anything with it on high hot temperatures for maximum shrinkage. I haven't had any real problems with dye issues either after making clothes with it.

[jjaynes.livejournal.com]

In reading other comments, perhaps I am too cautious with my linen. I do wash it on regular (I have a front load washer, so it's like delicate cycle for a top loader as far as wear on clothes) with woolite or other delicate wash. When I started having linen garb, I read up on the internet and was told by the ever-reliable oracle that linen fibers are not as strong as cotton's when wet, so a super-agitating top loader might cause undue wear. Also to use a soap like woolite rather than a detergent as it's better for the fiber; I cannot cite my source. I use warm for whites and cold for colors because of potential for bleeds, but it is not usually a problem *except with RED*. I wash reds separately if possible, as some bleed like mad.

Internet also said that heat drying will over time weaken linen, but I believe we're talking hundreds of dryings, not dozens. I line dry my stuff if feasable, because I have few dresses I wear often. It sounds like you are the opposite, so go for it with the dryer on medium or low.

[jducoeur]

Yes -- Jane beat the red lesson into my head many years ago. (And now that I have one lovely pink shirt, I am being much more careful to remember it...)

[kls-eloise.livejournal.com]

Rit Dye Remover may recover that shirt. Ask me how I know. :-)

[jducoeur]

Huh -- hadn't even occurred to me that it was possible. Thanks: I may well try that...

[kls-eloise.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't just turn MY stuff pink, but also one of Bob's rally shirts. It took the pink right out. I keep a couple of boxes on hand.

I've found it can have odd effects on things that are supposed to be a color - it'll take the color out of anything overdyed also. But if the garment was white to begin with, or if the running dye made it unwearable anyway - nothing to lose.

And if you round out the load with whites, it'll brighten them up too.

[jducoeur]

The shirt in question has a collar that is lined in blue, but that's a relatively minor detail. If the result is a white shirt with a paler blue collar, that's better than a pink shirt with a dark blue one...

[grinnellian2001.livejournal.com]

Yes to this! I wash all of my linen exactly as I do other clothes *except* that the reds, pinks, and blacks (to make a full load, since the blacks won't be hurt by getting a little fugitive red dye) together, the whites together, and the blues/browns/greens etc. together. Misc cotton (stockings, older junky clothes, underwear) gets thrown in the appropriate pile after Pennsic as well, I don't separate by fiber. We wash all of our laundry on cold or warm unless it really needs more (yours may, after a month, especially the whites) with regular detergent and then machine dry. No need to baby linen as long as you're sure it won't bleed, and if you have anything that does you will know after you do this a time or two.

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

I think the internet lied to you. Linen is a long-staple bast fiber, which means the length of each fiber can be measured in inches, as opposed to the fractions of an inch you find with cotton. It's actually stronger when wet than it is dry, and unless creased and ironed in the same place every time, will stay strong for years and years.

[fangirl715.livejournal.com]

I always pre-wash all my linen fabric in warm (sometimes hot, but not really hot) water and put it through the dryer on hot; I figure if it's going to shrink, better then than later after I've sewn it up. For general care, I usually use cool-to-warm water, a modest amount of ordinary detergent (for me, that's usually one of the free/clear types), tumble dry medium, and then iron it before wearing it. (Yes, I iron everything, even chemises; I suppose it makes me a glutton for punishment, but I can't help thinking that, for stuff I'm wearing, it just looks much better if I iron it first. YMMV, of course.) If you're not sure how it was dried in the past, I'd say either hang it to dry, or use a low setting on the dryer & check frequently, perhaps taking it out when it's still damp & hanging it to finish drying. Also, since it's been sitting around a while, I'd check it for obvious stains, grease spots, etc., and treat those before washing--a bit of detergent scrubbed in w/an old toothbrush works on most stains, and dishwashing liquid is especially good on grease. Oh, yes, and wash whites & similar shades apart from colors, and red all by its lonesome, but it sounds as if you already knew that. :-)

[jtdiii.livejournal.com]

I pre-wash all linen and dry on hot and then machine wash and dry on medium.

Pennsic being Pennsic, I also add in a cup of white vinegar per wash to deal with any mold or mildew that a delayed washing can allow to fester.

[jducoeur]

Don't think there's any mold/mildew danger -- in general, my laundry went into the hamper dry. But good point: I'll at least give it a good poke and sniff first...

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Wow. I wash all it all by hand, hang it to dry, and if I'm organized, iron it while it's still damp. Living in the past even in the laundry department, I guess.

[asdr83.livejournal.com]

I wash mine on delicate, cold water, and my regular detergent (but I use a green, gentle, dye and scent free detergent for all my stuff). I dry on the gentle cycle in the dryer. My stuff is fine and the linen i've done this too for a few years is very soft.

[mewilliamson.livejournal.com]

as someone has already noted, it really depends on how it was pre-washed. as store bought, I might check for wash instructions. (i think some of them have them)
I usually wash mine warm like everything else, but that is my home made stuff. since it sounds like you have enough for straight loads anyways, I would probably just wash and dry it all on delicate/cool to be safe. or you could test wash a couple of pieces with normal laundry and see if they have any problems.

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

Woollite, or shampoo for protein fibers (silk, wool, etc.)
Regular detergent for cellulose fibers (cotton, linen)

[ladymacgregor.livejournal.com]

I have been told by numerous people that drying linen in the dryer will break down the fabric. So for our voluminous RevWar linens (everything that isn't wool is linen), we wash them in the washer on either warm or cold (depending upon whether it's white or colored) and then ALWAYS hang it dry. When I first make a garment, I prewash the linen fabric on warm (any color) and dry it ONCE on hot, but after that, it gets hung-dried.

Yes, this does make the linen stiff (for my lord's shirts, they resemble sails). But after you put it on and wear it for a few minutes, they soften right up. And this has allowed my lord's shirts to survive for *ten* years - with many wearings per year, and a lot of hard usage.

(It's scary when you start counting the age of your *clothing* in decades.)

[jducoeur]

Hmm. I suspect that frequency of usage comes into play here. It likely matters much more for you (where you are wearing each outfit frequently) than for me (each outfit 1-2 times/year)...

Linen

[lwaks633.livejournal.com]

Send it to the laundry--a bit at a time, if the expense would be too great all at once. Linen wrinkles, just to be nasty, if you look at it from the wrong angle. (Unless wrinkled is acceptable on the basis of authenticity.)

Re: Linen

[jducoeur]

I often follow that model for my work clothes, but it is *so* not worth it for my Pennsic garb. Heck, it's not worth the time I'd waste trying to work with them to categorize the items for price.

(And yes, I consider wrinkles authentic...)

[eclecticmagpie.livejournal.com]

The only time I got into trouble treating line as sturdy stuff that can be washed quite casually, the problem was that though the *fabric* was linen, the thread holding it together was cotton, and shrank in the dryer, causing puckering (which mostly went away with ironing).