Life-Saving Hints for Curtains and Draperies

Life-Saving Hints for Curtains and Draperies 

A few precautions in storing, cleaning and laundering your curtains and draperies will add to their attractiveness and prolong their usefulness.

Curtains may be kept up and hung in cotton bags during the summer, which is an effective way of keeping them clean when windows are open, or when the family is away on vacation, or storage space and help are limited.

If the unwashable draperies are taken down, they should be brushed, aired and packed away in large boxes. Never pack curtains tightly, since it is hard to get the creases out again. Pile fabrics should be sent to the cleaner to be steamed if they are badly crushed.

With sheers that you wish to put away for the summer, wash them first, and then in the fall dampen and iron them before putting up.

When laundering glass curtains, let the tucks out first so that you can correct the length afterward, using your shrinkage allowance if you have to, and leaving a smaller tuck than the original one for the next tubbing.

Instead of attempting to shake out dust, rinse the curtains in a preliminary tubful of clear, lukewarm water. You will discover that you have loosened black dirt too, especially if you live in the city. For delicate materials use lots of suds to cushion the material, more than you would with apparel. If yours is a sturdy fabric, it can be washed in a machine. Use a mild soap. Squeeze the water out, don't rinse, and hang the curtains straight. If the fabric is net or lace and is not shrinkproof, you will need to use a stretcher. With many shrinkable materials, no matter what pre- cautions you take you will have shrinking, and the only course remaining will be to add a new heading that is, of course, unless you have included plenty of room in your shrinkage allowance. A little starch used with most glass fabrics will help to make them look crisp after washing. Ruffles particularly need stiffening for attractive starchiness.

Life-Saving Hints for Curtains and Draperies 

With delicate fabrics and colors, rolling in a towel after washing will help to preserve both the color and the fabric.

Color-fast heavy fabrics may be laundered, if care is exercised. Curtains and draperies may be dyed or tinted each season, as you will find they do not keep their color.

Iron curtains lengthwise with a warm iron, stretching them evenly, and when you are through hang them immediately, or lay them on a bed as, again, creases are hard to take out. Sometimes ironing causes curtains to hang unevenly and there is not much you can do about this. Automatic ironers do a better job of ironing, since the pressure is even.

Curtains and draperies that are faded, soiled or sun- burned irremediably at the bottom may be turned upside down, and the damaged part can be covered with cornice or valance, or carefully pleated so that it does not show.

Luckily, curtains and draperies that are somewhat worn always look much better once they are hung than they do in our hands. And trimmings and ruffles over worn edges will word wonders. Also panels may be reversed quite easily, with the right-hand side changed to the left, so that the outside edge which is worn or faded can be next to the trim and tucked under as much as possible, the other edge which was formerly protected by the trim now appearing quite fresh and unfaded.