How To Safely Clean Your Linen Clothes
Linen is one of those materials that people can often feel reluctant to go near. Perhaps that’s because it will crease the minute you touch it, its price tag can be off-putting or the mere fact that it is rarely found in ‘trendy’ styles. But linen is a fabric that you will never be able to stop once you begin wearing. Why? Because it is one of the most comfortable and versatile materials we can access. Linen in any form, whether bedding, towels or clothing, feels innately luxurious.
However, once you do purchase your new linen item a new question arises. How to wash it?
Linen items can either be hand-washed or machine-washed depending on what works best for your personal situation and certainly do not need to be handled by a professional! Luckily for us, linen has been used in clothing for thousands of years, meaning we really have gotten quite close to perfecting our cleaning techniques.
Ethereal linen clothing company Son de Flor lays out the following advice for you to follow:
When machine washing Separate white, dark, and colored linens. Then, prepare the laundry by turning them inside out. Button up all the buttons and zip up the zippers.
Choose low temperatures and lukewarm waters (<40°C/104°F) and use a gentle machine wash. Use a mild detergent, meant for delicate fibres and do not bleach. Finally, take note that there is no need for the softener, since linen naturally gets softer with every wash, and stonewashed linen is already at its maximum softness, thus softener will only weaken the fibres reducing their absorbency and moisture-wicking properties.
In order to wash by hand, fill a small container with lukewarm water and add about a teaspoon of mild detergent. Submerge the linen garment in lukewarm water and let it soak for about 10 minutes. Gently make a back-and-forth swish motion on linen clothes. Never twist, or scrub as it can damage the fabric. Drain the soapy water and repeatedly rinse until the soap is all gone. Do not wring linen to remove excess water or even twist or scrub the fabric at all since this can ruin your garment. Carefully roll each item in a towel to remove moisture. To complete the process, hang your item on a padded hanger to dry!
When in doubt, follow the cleaning instructions available to you from the company you purchased your item from. Then, go forth and enjoy your beautiful, and clean, linen!
