It's Sunday night and - cold or no - time to sort my laundry in preparation for Wash Day. My pile of white garments and towels is big enough this week to make a full load of bleachables. There is one white article I'm not sure what to do with. It's made of 92% nylon/8% spandex. My manual only mentions nylon once (it had only hit markets in 1939) and this is in reference to nylon stockings. Precious articles that they were during the war years, nylon stockings were strictly handwashable. Well, a handwashing it shall get.
I've got another item which is 49% rayon/48% polyester/3% spandex. One of the things I learned about rayons last week is that they could - even in 1945 - be washed by machine in a lukewarm suds, but there are very specific directions about drying these pieces by hand. I'll have to remember to pull this tomorrow morning and dry it by hand in my apartment. That modal/spandex item from last week will get the same treatment.
A few more to go. I've got a shirt which is 65% polyester/35% cotton. Though chemists were hard at work on polyester during the 1940s, it wasn't introduced to the marketplace until about 1953. So I think it's safe to say I'm not going to find any useful guidance on laundering polyester in any manual from this period. Just going to follow the instructions on the garment's label: "Machine wash warm... Tumble dry." Next is a 100% acrylic sweater. From what I've been able to find online, acrylic wasn't introduced to the market as a textile until 1950, so I'm in the same spot as with the last garment: "Machine wash cold. Delicate cycle... Tumble dry low." There is no delicate cycle on the machines in my laundromat, so I'll have to handwash this item.
A bra is quite a tricky item. One of mine is made up of polyester/nylon/polyurethane foam/cotton/spandex - but more polyester than anything else. I'll trust the label on this one: "Hand wash warm water with like colors. Do not bleach. Line dry." The label on another one is nearly impossible to read, but appears to be some blend of nylon/elastic. I'll handwash this one as I would nylon stockings. These are tough little buggers!
That's it. Two handwashables plus my bras. Two more hand dryables. I'm not sure yet whether I'll do the handwashables while my laundry's in the dryers or whether I'll save 'em for tomorrow evening.
2 comments:
Today is my laundry day as well. I have been handwashing my delicate seamed stockings, girdle, vintage bras, garter belt by hand and hanging them to dry. I orginally put them on the railing in the bath, but then thought how unsightly and your post with the woman hanging her unmentionables in the basement laundry room gave me the inspiration. I think I could get a little silk bag, though and wash them in that in the machine. But not sure if I trust it. I think they may have done that in the 1950s.
Happy Wash Day! And, yes, I think unless you were a "bachelor girl," you'd have wanted to spare your husband the sight of your delicates hanging all about the bathroom.
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