The Orenburg downy shawl is rightfully considered the most recognizable symbol of Russian fashion abroad. The craft, which originated in Russia more than 250 years ago, does not give up its positions, but continues to develop. During this time, more advanced spinning wheels and dyes appeared, which gave a new impetus to the development of the ancient craft. A careful attitude to traditions, combined with the imagination and talent of modern knitters, have turned it into something much more important than a wardrobe item. A scarf made of the finest goat down gives a woman warmth, which is so sometimes lacking in the rapid flow of life. I threw it on my shoulders and felt protected from all adversity, as if covered by a guardian angel! It is rare that a woman can resist acquiring such a wonderful product.
The thinnesta work of art requires appropriate care, careful and accurate. Only then will the downy scarf delight its owner with warmth, tenderness and beauty for many years. The less often you wash it, the longer it will last.
Regular maintenance of a goat down scarf
Individual dirt can be cleaned without much thinking about how to wash a downy shawl at home. Fresh stains from fruit, wine or blood are removed with ordinary aspirin. Two tablets are dissolved in a small amount of cool water, the stain is treated with this solution and washed off with water after 20 minutes. If traces of the stain remain, repeat the treatment.
Splashes from street dirt should also not be hastily washed. After drying, they can be removed with a brush.
In winter, you can refresh your scarf with snow. If you hang it on an open loggia or balcony during a snowfall for several hours, the frosty air will remove all extraneous odors - the scarf will become soft and fluffy. You can also apply a delicate rubbing of a handkerchief with dry, clean snow or talc. The effect will be noticeable immediately. And it will allow you to forget for a while about how to wash a downy scarf at home.
But sooner or later there comes a moment when you can't do without washing. And the owner of a lace miracle will have to look for information on how to properly wash a goat down shawl at home.
Handles, only pens
It should be remembered that down products do not tolerate dry cleaning and machine washing - they are washed only by hand! Washing in the machine will not protect it from rubbing againstdrum walls and temperature fluctuations, to which goat down is very sensitive, no matter what mode is set. So what is the right way to wash a down scarf and dry it at home?
Preparing a down scarf for washing
The preparatory stage will take a lot of time, but it must be carried out, since only the high-quality implementation of all stages guarantees the preservation of the shape of the scarf. It consists in carefully combing the down product. It is from this process that the final result largely depends.
Fluff combing
Before washing a downy shawl, the down should be carefully and efficiently combed, otherwise it may fall off during the washing process. Shaking strongly, the shawl is laid out on the table and carefully combed with a soft nylon or wooden-toothed brush.
After untangling larger knots of down, the brush is replaced with a regular comb with rounded teeth. Comb with light movements, without touching the loops of the knitted fabric. The quality of this stage depends on how soft and fluffy the downy scarf will remain after washing.
Spider web shawls and stoles do not comb.
How to avoid deformation of the scarf shape?
In order not to deform the teeth framing the edge of the product, they must be collected with a needle on a strong thread. You can use a gypsy needle, but when working, you need to be careful not to break the thread of the scarf. It's better to take a threaddurable silk, its length should be at least the perimeter of the scarf plus 50-60 cm.
Collect starting from the corner of the product. A needle and thread are threaded into the top of a scarf clove. Next, a needle and thread are sequentially threaded into each subsequent clove, without gaps. The tip of the needle is always directed towards itself, it pierces the teeth without twisting them. It depends on the quality of this stage whether you can keep the shape of the product and the same size of the teeth after washing. Depending on the size of the handkerchief and the skill of the needle, this stage of preparation takes from 10 to 30 minutes. The ends of the thread should be securely tied with a strong knot several times so that it does not come loose during washing and stretching the product for subsequent drying.
How to wash: choose a detergent
At this stage, the question is: "How to wash a downy scarf at home?" is replaced by the question: "What to wash?".
Do not use detergent, the residue of which is very difficult to rinse out of the product. In addition, poorly dissolved powder granules settle on the delicate fluff fibers, and the scarf will lose its original fluffy appearance after washing. One of the best detergents for washing goat down scarves is "Weasel" with the effect of restoring the elasticity of the fibers.
You can also use herbal shampoo, neutral liquid soap without dyes, hair conditioner or fabric conditioner.
And the bleach? But how then to wash a white downy scarf?
Bleach -a categorical taboo for washing down products.
Washing a down scarf
Here it is, the long-awaited answer to the question: "How to wash a downy scarf at home?".
When washing goat down products, it is important to observe the temperature regime. Wash and rinse in water of the same temperature, not exceeding thirty-five degrees. Violation of this condition is fraught with loss of size and beauty of the scarf. The detergent must be completely dissolved in water. Do not direct a stream of water from a tap to a scarf, especially a cobweb or tippet. When washing and rinsing, it is unacceptable to rub, stretch, twist, lift the scarf by the corners. Only soft, delicate squeezing movements. As if kneading soft dough. The container for washing should be chosen so that the solution completely covers the scarf. The handkerchief is taken out of the solution by gathering it into a ball in water with both hands, avoiding hanging and stretching.
If the product is heavily soiled, it can be soaked for 20-25 minutes.
Rinse several times until the water runs clear. For the penultimate rinse, use a solution of table vinegar: one tablespoon per five liters of water. Final rinse with down fabric conditioner.
Squeeze out the handkerchief with the same delicate soft movements as when washing. After such an extraction, there is still a lot of water in it, so the scarf is placed in a net and hung for a while to drain the water. Then they are laid out on a terry towel of the appropriate size, rolled up and squeezed gently, without twisting. Such a push is notdeforms the scarf but removes excess moisture.
Bleaching handkerchief
Washing a white down scarf is carried out in the same way. But a scarf that has turned yellow and has lost its whiteness needs to be bleached. To bleach down, hydrogen peroxide or hydroperite tablets are used, at the rate of five tablets or twenty grams of peroxide per one hundred grams of handkerchief weight. The amount of water is determined by the size of the container and the handkerchief: the bleaching solution must completely cover the product. Ammonia is added to the solution at the rate of one tablespoon per liter of water.
Bleach the handkerchief for 6-12 hours, not forgetting to observe the temperature regime. To maintain the optimum temperature, it is best to use a heating pad.
After bleaching, the product should be rinsed thoroughly.
How to dry a handkerchief properly?
Dry the product only in a stretched form, the only way to keep the shape of the scarf.
You can dry it in two ways: without a frame, spreading it on a prepared bedding, and on a special drying frame that matches the size of the handkerchief.
The place for drying the handkerchief should be chosen away from the kitchen and smoking areas, as damp fluff simply absorbs odors instantly. Dry at room temperature, avoiding direct sunlight.
To dry without a frame, spread a towel or other absorbent cloth slightly larger than a handkerchief on a soft base (sofa,bed, carpet). If a thick scarf is to be dried, then polyethylene is spread under the fabric. Shake the scarf to loosen the fluff fibers, and carefully spread it on the prepared place. All the cloves of the scarf are fixed with tailor's pins, pinning not the scarf itself to the bedding, but the thread on which the cloves of the scarf were collected at the preparatory stage for washing. At the same time, it is important not to allow distortions, the scarf should take its original shape.
If there is a frame, then the scarf is fixed on it in the same way. No bedding is attached to the frame.
It is important that when pinning the scarf to the bedding or drying frame, it is damp. A warm scarf dries long enough, but cobwebs and stoles dry quickly. Therefore, in the process of fixing, to give the correct shape, they must be moistened with a spray bottle.
During the drying process, it is recommended to periodically shake the handkerchief to give it volume. It is convenient to do this if it is fixed on the drying frame. If they are dried on a bedding, then to give the scarf additional softness and volume, a slightly damp scarf is loosely folded, placed in a bag and sent for 2-3 hours in the freezer.
Reviews
Owners of downy shawls and stoles, according to reviews, wash them exclusively by hand and dry them in a straightened state with fixation with a clove. Most of them do not use a drying frame. Some original advice came across in the comments: pin a gossamer scarf on a carpet hanging on the wall, or on a wall pasted with wallpaper.
Some women refuse to purchase goat down products, considering their care too laborious.
