A small sauce-pan or porringer should be kept for boiling starch, and used for nothing else. Boil the water in the porringer, wet the starch smooth in a little cold water, and pour it in slowly, stirring steadily till it has become of equal thickness. Leave it to boil moderately eight or ten minutes. If starch is pure, and well made, it need not be strained. The leg of a fine cotton stocking makes a very good strainer.
To make Flour Starch.
Wet white flour smooth in cold water, and pour it into boiling water, just like the fine starch. Some people do not boil it; others think dresses retain the stiffness longer if it is boiled. It should be so made as to have no lumps in it, and if it is not, it should be strained through a fine colander. Allow a table-spoonful of flour, and nearly three pints of water for a dress. If there are several dresses and skirts to be dipped, divide the starch into two or three parcels, because the first article put into it will take too large a proportion of the stiffness, and leave what remains too thin for the rest. Reserve those which need least stiffness to be starched last.
To Whiten or Bleach.
The best time in the year is the month of May. The dew at that period has a peculiar efficacy for bleaching. In the country, where clean grass plots are accessible, it is a good way to take all the white clothes of the week's wash, from the first rinsing water, or from the boiling suds, and lay them on the grass. After two or three nights take them up before they are dry in the morning, rinse them well, and put them on the line. Their improved appearance will pay for the trouble. In August, clothes should never be more than one day and night upon the grass, lest they become mildewed. In the winter, they will whiten fast, in sunny weather, upon clean snow; and leaving them on the line in the frost over night, after being washed makes them white.
To wash Thibet Cloths, Bombazines, Mouslin de Laines, and Plaids.
If you wish to make over a dress before it is badly worn or soiled, rip it, and sponge it in warm water with Castile soap in it. Sponge a piece at a time, on the side which is to be out, and iron it on the other side, until perfectly dry. The irons should be quite hot but not so as to change the color. If it is hung upon the bars or laid away, damp, it will curl and look old.
Thibet cloths of good quality last so long that they are worth being done up twice. After doing good service, till parts of the waist and sleeves are worn out the dress should be ripped and washed (sponging will not answer), and if it is of a color that fades at all, wash with it any new pieces that you may have to use in making it over. Wash it just as you would a nice flannel, with Castile or olive soap, and then rinse it in two clear warm waters. Remember not to wring it either time as it is almost impossible to iron out the wrinkles. Squeeze out the suds a little before you rinse it. Let it drip as it hangs upon the clothes line, for twenty minutes or half an hour; and before the upper edge begins to dry, and while the lower edge is still wet, turn the lower edge up over the line, and the dry edge down, and let it hang a few minutes, then fold each piece, and lay them in a pile with a damp cloth round them. Have a steady good fire, and several irons, and press them upon the wrong side until dry.
Bombazines if not badly soiled, can be sponged, in the same way as the Thibet cloths. If they are to be made up the same side out as before, sponge that side, and iron on the other. If they need to be washed, it is usually best that they should be made up the inside out, and of course should be ironed on what has been the right side. Wash them just like Thibet cloth. The black bombazines, and other similar fabrics worn in mourning, all wash well, and can be done repeatedly, and each time look so well as to reward the trouble.
Wash de laines and plaids in the same way. It is safe to use the genuine olive soap for those of the most beautiful colors; they will remain unchanged.