Do you still use a regular ironing board to iron your table linens? Sometimes, I send mine to the laundry, but most of the time, I prefer to do take care of my linens myself. Here are some quick tips for healthy linens:
1. Remove from table promptly after a meal. - it's okay to wait till the guests go home.
2. Place them in the washer with a measure of Oxyclean. I usually leave them in overnight. Who wants to do laundry at night? This gives any stain a tough time as it tries to set.
3. Complete wash cycle in the morning. Check for any residual spotting and treat accordingly. Usually there are none.
4. Damp dry or hang to dry if you are lucky enough to have a clothesline.
5. Iron them if they do not require any starch and will look fine without it. If starch is needed, put them away; either hang up or fold them neatly. You don't really want to fold starched items as it will weaken the fibers over time (especially crucial for delicate heirloom quality pieces). Depending on where you live, the starch might attract weevils to dine on your pieces.
1. For linen or cotton tablecloths, give a quick rinse in the washer with a homemade solution of starch. Buy the dry starch and add about 1/2 cup to a 1/2 washer load.
2. Damp dry in the dryer.
3. Iron right away or place the folded tablecloth in a plastic bag in the refrigerator overnight or for a few hours. Why this works, I have no clue, but it does make ironing easier.
4. Use the hottest setting on your steam iron. Since the starch is in the fabric, you won't have any residue on the bottom of your iron.
5. As you iron, pull the tablecloth onto the table. No wrinkles and no ironing the length twice! I do usually put a pad on the table for dinner, but omitted it in the step above!
Please drop in on this post HERE and leave a comment to be entered into a drawing for a set of 8 monogrammed white dinner napkins, your monogram, your style of monogram, your color of monogram. Winner to be announced Wednesday April 27th, 2011.
18 comments:
Marlis, This is a great idea for how to iron large linens! I'm one who likes to iron so I really appreciate your tips.
Hope you had a lovely Easter.
Babs
Great tips Marlis! I especially like the one about soaking the tablecloth overnight:@)
Great tips! I always iron the tablecloths even though sometimes they don't quite look it. You KNOW I would never miss the opportunity to win monogrammed tableware!
Marlis, This is a brilliant post. I would love to have a board like that for my tablecloths. Have a wonderful week.
Great ideas. I remember seeing my mother sprinkle what she called "rough dry" clothes and put them in the fridge when I was very little. (That was a long time ago!)
I did something similar for ironing napkins, using an unused shelf board. It beats having to set up the regular ironing board. I sit at the kitchen island and catch up on the napkins which do need the iron. (I don't iron all of them, because we use cloth all the time. That's one of my bits for the environment -- no paper napkins.)
Great post, Marlis! I am one of those people who just HATES to have wrinkles or lines of any sort in my linens. I take great care with them...even the poly blends! I can remember from childhood how our ironing lady would mist the linens and put them in the fridge. Her stuff always came out picture perfect! Unfortunately, I never have enough room in either regrigerator to follow suit! :-) Great ironing board your husband made!!! I know that really must help an awful lot!
What a fantastic idea! I dislike ironing table cloths. The main reason is that I'm a left handed housewife and tend to get tangled in either cord or linen. (Probably shouldn't admit that in public, but...)
This is a really wonderful idea, and I'm showing it to my husband since I would probably need his cooperation if I were going to make something like this.
I'm a left handed carpenter, too.
What a great idea! I could have used that recently for my Easter table. Thanks for sharing the great pictures.
I had forgotten about the frig! I usually take mine out of the washer, stretch outside to dry a little, then put it on the table and smooth it all out Touch up with the iron.
Love your board!
I love the information on ironing the tablecloths. It was great.
Marlis, thanks for the great info on taking care of my table linens.
Now I'll know how to care for those monogramed napkins when you pick my name as the winner!! Hee Hee
Thanks for the tips, Marlis. I don't know if I can follow them though, I am just too lazy. Your linens are always looking crisp and pretty...Christine
GREAT table!!!!
A great idea! We are always looking for ways to make chores easier! ♥
Marlis, I love the idea with the wool blanket. My husband just took down some adjustable metal shelves from closet and I have been using it wrapped it towels to iron my tablecloths, but wool blanket will be perfect. I love the adjustable shelf b/c I can reduce the size down to about 20" and it's easy to store. Now I have to figure out how to make a wool cover that can contract along with the shelf! Dianne
Great tips. I am one of those people that after every meal the table linens go immediately into the wash. Spot treated before if needed.
What great tips! I'm saving this post, so I can link back to it. So many good ideas. Thanks Marlis. laurie
What a good idea Marlis, yeah, it's better to wash and iron oneself, as I had once a bad experience in the cleaners, they shrank a cotton pretty tbcloth I had!...since, I do it myself succesfully! I like the ironing board, it's perfect!
Thank you for coming by and leaving me such generous and lovely comments, honey. I have 2 sets of the hand made china, the birds that's mine and the Carnations, that's my hubby's. My 2 daughters have one each too. I also got one back that we gave our Mil on one M.Day. I still need to make a table with Sofia's china...I did one with Alexandra's recently.
Hugs
FABBY
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