Salts of ammonia, mixed with lime, will take out the stains of wine from silk. Spirits of turpentine, alcohol, and clear ammonia, are all good to remove stains on colored silks. Spots of common or durable ink can be removed by saturating them with lemon-juice, and rubbing on salt, then putting them where the sun will shine on them hot, for several hours. As fast as it dries, put on more lemon-juice and salt. When lemon juice cannot be obtained, citric acid is a good substitute. Iron mould may be removed in the same way. Mildew and most other stains can be removed by rubbing on soft soap and salt, and placing it where the sun will shine on it hot. Where soap and salt will not remove stains, lemon-juice and salt will generally answer. The above things will only remove stains in warm, clear weather, when the sun is hot. Sulphuric acid, diluted with water, is very effectual in removing fruit stains. Care should be taken not to have it so strong as to eat a hole in the garment, and as soon as the stain is out, it should be rinsed in pearl-ash water, and then in fair water. Colored cotton goods, that have common ink spilt on them, should be soaked in lukewarm sour milk.
412. Directions for Washing Calicoes.
Calico clothes, before they are put in water, should have the grease spots rubbed out, as they cannot be seen when the whole of the garment is wet. They should never be washed in very hot soap suds; that which is mildly warm will cleanse them quite as well, and will not extract the colors so much. Soft soap should never be used for calicoes, excepting for the various shades of yellow, which look the best washed with soft soap, and not rinsed in fair water. Other colors should be rinsed in fair water, and dried in the shade. When calicoes incline to fade, the colors can be set by washing them in lukewarm water, with beef’s gall, in the proportion of a tea-cup full to four or five gallons of water. Rinse them in fair water—no soap is necessary, without the clothes are very dirty. If so, wash them in lukewarm suds, after they have been first rubbed out in beef’s gall water. The beef’s gall can be kept several months, by squeezing it out of the skin in which it is enclosed, adding salt to it, and bottled and corked tight. The water that potatoes has been boiled in is an excellent thing to wash black calicoes in. When there are many black garments to wash in a family, it is a good plan to save, during the week, all the water in which potatoes are boiled. The following method is said to set the colors of calicoes so that they will not fade by subsequent washing: Infuse three gills of salt in four quarts of boiling water; put in the calicoes, (which should be perfectly clean; if not so, the dirt will be set.) Let the calicoes remain in till the water is cold. I have never seen this tried, but I think it not improbable that it may be an excellent way to set the colors, as rinsing calicoes in cold salt and water serves to set the colors, particularly of black, blue, and green colors. A little vinegar in the rinsing water of pink, red, and green calicoes, is good to brighten the colors, and keep them from mixing. All kinds of calicoes but black, look better for starching, but black calicoes will not look clear if starched. On this account potato water is an excellent thing to wash them, if boiled down to a thick consistence, as it stiffens them without showing.
413. Directions for Cleaning Silk Goods.
When silk cushions, or silk coverings to furniture, become dingy, rub dry bran on it gently, with a woollen cloth, till clean. Remove grease spots and stains as in direction [No. 410]. Silk garments should have the spots extracted before being-washed—use hard soap for all colors but yellow, for which soft soap is the best. Put the soap into hot water, beat it till it is perfectly dissolved, then add sufficient cold water to make it just lukewarm. Put in the silks, and rub them in it till clean; take them out without wringing, and rinse them in fair lukewarm water. Rinse it in another water, and for bright yellows, crimsons, and maroons, add sulphuric acid enough to the water to give it an acid taste, before rinsing the garment in it. To restore the colors of the different shades of pink, put in the second rinsing water a little vinegar or lemon-juice. For scarlet, use a solution of tin; for blues, purples, and their shades, use pearl-ash; and for olive-greens, dissolve verdigris in the rinsing water—fawn and browns should be rinsed in pure water. Dip the silks up and down in the rinsing water: take them out of it without wringing, and dry them in the shade. Fold them up while damp: let them remain to have the dampness strike through all parts of them alike, then put them in a mangler—if you have not one, iron them on the wrong side, with an iron only just hot enough to smooth them. A little isinglass or gum arabic, dissolved in the rinsing water of gauze shawls and ribbons, is good to stiffen them. The water in which pared potatoes have been boiled, is an excellent thing to wash black silks in—it stiffens, and makes them glossy and black. Beef’s gall and lukewarm water is also a nice thing to restore rusty silk, and soap-suds answers very well. They look better not to be rinsed in clear water, but they should be washed in two different waters.
414. Directions for Washing Woollens.
If you do not wish to have white flannels shrink when washed, make a good suds of hard soap, and wash the flannels in it, without rubbing any soap on them; rub them out in another suds, then wring them out of it, and put them in a clean tub, and turn on sufficient boiling water to cover them, and let them remain till the water is cold. A little indigo in the boiling water makes the flannels look nicer. If you wish to have your white flannels shrink, so as to have them thick, wash them in soft soap-suds, and rinse them in cold water. Colored woollens that incline to fade, should be washed with beef’s gall and warm water before they are put into soap-suds. Colored pantaloons look very well washed with beef’s gall and fair warm water, and pressed on the wrong side while damp.
415. Directions for Washing White Cotton Clothes.
Table-cloths, or any white clothes that have coffee or fruit stains on them, before being put into soap-suds, should have boiling water turned on them, and remain in it till the water is cold—the spots should be then rubbed out in it. If they are put into soap-suds with the stains in, they will be set by it, so that no subsequent washing will remove them. Table-cloths will be less likely to get stained up, if they are always rinsed in thin starch water, as it tends to keep coffee and fruit from sinking into the texture of the cloth. White clothes that are very dirty, will come clean easily if put into strong, cool suds and hung on the fire the night previous to the day in which they are to be washed. If they get to boiling, it will not do them any harm, provided the suds is cool when they are put in; if it is hot at first, it will set the dirt in. The following method of washing clothes is a saving of a great deal of labor: Soak the clothes in lukewarm soap-suds; if they are quite dirty, soak them over night. To every three pails of water put a pint of soft soap, and a table-spoonful of the salts of soda. Heat it till mildly warm, then put in the clothes without any rubbing, and boil them an hour. Drain the suds out of them as much as possible, as it is bad for the hands; then add water till cool enough for the hands. The dirt will be loose, so that they will require but a little rubbing. Rinse them thoroughly in clear water, then in indigo water. The soda can be procured cheap, by purchasing it in large quantities—soda is an excellent thing to soften hard water. The soda suds will not do to wash calicoes in. It is a good plan to save your suds, after washing, to water your garden, if you have one, or to harden cellars and yards, when sandy.