Oliver + S

softening linen??

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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    sosew @sosew

    I’ve made a lovely little linen shirt and my little model happily put it on and then declared – its too ichy!!

    i had prewashed it but not dried it (i cant even remember why! i usually dry stuff for kids clothes). all the tips im finding for softening linen are to wash on hot and dry.

    am i totally out of luck? if i wash it and put it in the dryer will it shrink up a ton now?

    the second little model is half an inch shorter and a couple pounds lighter so its possible if it shrinks just a bit that he would still fit in it.

    i dont think it would work wiht an undershirt.

    thanks!!

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    meleliza @meleliza

    It’s hard to say how much it will shrink now, but generally, yes linen will soften after it’s been washed and dried a few times. It tends to only get softer over time too.

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    Nicole @motherof5

    Try washing it in a wool wash and then air drying it.
    I tend to wash linen in a wool/delicate wash product as it can help with the stiffness/scratchiness

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    jay_1965vw @jay_1965vw

    If you have a large enough swatch left, you could try washing and machine drying a sample (mark a 10cm or 4″ square with permanent marker first). Then you’ll be able to see how much shrinkage you’ll get.

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    sosew @sosew

    Thanks for all the tips.

    In the meantime now someone in the house was trying to be helpful with the laundry and put it in the wash and dryer, so I guess that is done 🙂 The good news is it shrunk only a tiny bit so it still fits the smaller one just fine. And it did seem to soften up.

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    jay_1965vw @jay_1965vw

    Hahahaha Problem solved.
    Could have been catastrophic but wasn’t 🙂

    (ok, now I have the “We solved the problem” song from Peg + Cat going around my head…)

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    Liesl Gibson
    Keymaster
    @liesl

    Linen will continue to soften more and more with each washing, and that’s one of the beauties of it. I wrote a little bit about it a while ago on the blog: http://oliverands.com/community/blog/2013/04/fabric-friday-natural-fibers-used-to-make-fabric.html

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    sosew @sosew

    Thanks!

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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