THE LAUNDRY.
TELLING OF A GREAT MANY USEFUL AND LABOR-SAVING
PRACTICES FOR THE LAUNDRY.
TO MAKE WASHING FLUID.
Bring to a boil one pound of sal soda, half a pound of unslaked lime,
a small lump of borax, and five quarts of water. Let cool, pour off,
and bottle. Use one teacupful to a boiler of clothes. This is
superior.
GALL SOAP.
For washing woolens, silks, or fine prints liable to fade. One pint
beefs gall, two pounds common bar soap cut fine, one quart boiling
soft water; boil slowly, stirring occasionally until well mixed. Pour
into a flat vessel, and when cold cut into pieces to dry.
TO TAKE OUT SCORCH.
If a shirt bosom or any other article has been scorched in ironing,
lay it where bright sunshine will fall directly on it. It will
entirely remove it.
BLUING.
Take one ounce of Prussian blue, one-half ounce of oxalic acid;
dissolve in one quart of perfectly soft rain water. Insert a quill
through the cork of the bluing bottle to prevent waste or putting too
much in clothes and you will be pleased with the result. One or two
tablespoons of it is sufficient for a tub of water, according to the
size of the tub. Chinese blue is the best and costs twelve and a half
cents an ounce, and the acid will cost three cents.
COFFEE STARCH.
Make a paste of two tablespoons best starch and cold water; when
smooth stir in a pint of perfectly clear coffee, boiling hot; boil
five or ten minutes. Stir with a spermaceti or wax candle. Strain and
use for all dark calicoes, percales, and muslins.
FLOUR STARCH.
Have a clean pan or kettle on stove with one quart boiling water, into
which stir three heaping tablespoons flour, previously mixed smooth in
a little cold water; stir steadily until it boils and thereafter
enough to keep from burning. Boil about five minutes, and strain,
while hot, through a crash towel. The above quantity is enough for one
dress, and will make it nice and stiff.
TO MAKE FINE STARCH.
Wet the starch smooth in a little cold water in a large tin pan, pour
on a quart of boiling water to two or three tablespoons of starch,
stirring rapidly all the while; place on stove, stir until it boils
and then occasionally. Boil from five to fifteen minutes, or until the
starch is perfectly clear. Some add a little salt or butter or pure
lard or stir with a sperm candle; others add a teaspoon of kerosene to
one quart of starch. This prevents the stickiness sometimes so
annoying in ironing.
Cold starch is made from starch dissolved in cold water, being careful
not to have it too thick. Since it rots the clothes, it is not
advisable to use it.
ENAMEL FOR SHIRT BOSOMS.
Melt together, with a gentle heat, one ounce white wax and two ounces
spermaceti. Prepare in the usual way a sufficient quantity of starch
for a dozen shirt bosoms, put into it a piece of this enamel the size
of a hazelnut. This will give your clothes a beautiful polish.
TO CLEAN ARTICLES MADE OF WHITE ZEPHYR.
Rub in flour or magnesia, changing often. Shake off and hang in the
open air a short time.
HOW TO CLEAN VELVET.
Invert a hot flatiron, place over it a single thickness of wet cotton
cloth, lay on this the velvet (wrong side next the wet cloth), rub
gently with a dry cloth until the pile is well raised, take off the
iron, lay on a table, and brush it with a soft brush or cloth.
TO CLEAN RIBBONS.
Dissolve white soap in boiling water; when cool enough to bear the
hand, pass the ribbons through it, rubbing gently, so as not to injure
the texture; rinse through lukewarm water and pin on a board to dry.
If the colors are bright yellow, maroon, crimson or scarlet, add a few
drops of oil of vitriol to the rinse water; if the color is bright
scarlet, add to the rinse water a few drops of muriate of tin.
TO TAKE OUT PAINT.
Equal parts of ammonia and spirits of turpentine will take paint out
of clothing. Saturate the spot two or three times, and then wash out
in soapsuds.
TO REMOVE INK STAIN.
Immediately saturate with milk, soak it up with a rag, apply more, rub
well, and in a few minutes the ink will disappear.
TO TAKE GREASE OUT
of silk, woolens, paper, floors, etc., grate chalk thick over the
spot, cover with brown paper, set on it a hot flatiron and let it
remain until cool; repeat if necessary. The iron must not be so hot as
to burn paper or cloth.
FRUIT STAINS.
Colored cottons or woolens stained with wine or fruit should be wet in
alcohol and ammonia, then sponged off gently (not rubbed) with
alcohol; after that, if the material will warrant it, washed in tepid
soapsuds. Silk may be wet with this preparation when injured by these
stains.
TO REMOVE IRON RUST.
While rinsing clothes, take such as have spots of iron, wring out, dip
a wet finger in oxalic acid and rub on the spot, then dip in salt and
rub on and hold on a warm flatiron, and the spot will immediately
disappear; rinse again, rubbing the place a little with the hands.
TO TAKE OUT MILDEW.
Wet the cloth and rub on soap and chalk, mixed together, and lay in
the sun; or, lay the cloth in buttermilk for a short time, take out
and place in the hot sun; or, put lemon juice on and treat in the same
way.
TO WASH WOOLEN GOODS.
Many woolen goods, such as light-colored, heavy sacques, nubias, etc.,
may be washed in cold suds and rinsed in cold water. The garments
should be well shaken out and pulled into shape.
TO WASH FLANNELS IN TEPID WATER.
The usefulness of liquid ammonia is not as universally known among
housewives as it deserves to be. If you add some of it to a soapsuds
made of a mild soap it will prevent the flannel from becoming yellow
or shrinking. It is the potash and soda combined in sharp soap which
tend to color animal fibers yellow; the shrinking may be partially due
to this agency, but above all to the exposure of the flannel while wet
to the extremes of low and high temperature. Dipping it in boiling
water or leaving it out in the rain will also cause it to shrink and
become hard. To preserve their softness, flannels should be washed in
tepid suds, rinsed in tepid water, and dried rapidly at a moderate
heat.--_Buckeye._