There's a wind whipping up what looks like it's going to be a lovely rainstorm this evening. I've been folding the laundry I washed this morning and thinking that if I were living 60 years ago I'd probably be rushing out to the line as we speak to bring in my clean, dry clothes before they got rained on!
While I sorted the laundry last night in preparation for today's wash, I realized just how interrelated some of these missions are going to be. Cleaning the bedroom on Thursday evenings means I'm going to have additional laundry to wash on Mondays and - because the manual takes for granted that my sheets will be ironed when they're tucked away in the linen closet - additional ironing on Tuesdays. Yep! I'm going to iron my sheets. That's a definite first here in the Jitterbug household. I suppose that means I should iron my pillowcases, too. Apparently there are two ways you can iron your sheets. One method, termed "especially careful" by the authors of the manual, also applies to tablecloths:
Fold selvedge to selvedge, right side out. Iron first on one side, then on the other. Fold again, lengthwise. Iron again on both sides. Fold to put away.
This second method must be what we'd call "quick and dirty":
Iron 4 thicknesses at once: fold hem to hem, then fold in half, bringing hem side to fold. Iron first on plain side, then on hem side.
Such a decision! Thank goodness I have 24 hours to think this one over...
The manual gives us a charming reminder of 1940s bedroom decor when they recommend that the housewife be sure to remove "dresser scarves" for laundering as she gives each bedroom its weekly cleaning. I'm guessing that a '40s housewife must have had at least twice as many dresser scarves as she had dressers if she didn't want to leave her dressers bare after cleaning the bedrooms. (Wash Day being still several days away.) I used to think that dresser scarves were all about the same shape and size, but it turns out that there are several different types of dresser scarves. According to Lily Haxworth Wallace in The New American Etiquette (1941), every bride should be equipped with the following for each bedroom of her new home:
Two bureau scarfs
Two dresser scarfs
Two vanity scarfs
Two night-stand scarfs
Multiply that by several bedrooms, and that's one hefty addition to the Monday wash! Whether your scarves were doilies or embroidered flatwork, they had to be ironed as well. What's with all the scarves, for goodness' sake? Was the look of a simple wooden surface so abhorrent?
11 comments:
snicker... dresser scarf... so the dresser doesn't catch a cold...
maybe the scarves are to prevent scratches?
Absolutely, Public Artist, dresser scarves are meant to prevent scratches as well as rings from night table water glasses and carafes or crystal perfume bottles and bottles of oils on the vanity tables. They are also a cheap and easy way to change the look of a furniture set that you may have had for so long you can hardly stand to look at it!
I've learned my lesson of the need for dresser scarves the hard way.
I thought they were just decorative and got tired of washing them and moving them to dust, so I removed them. When I took the scarf off of my 1930s vanity thinking I thought the bare wood veneer looked so nice.
WELL, it is now stained with my liquid makeup! Drops, smudges, etc. that I can't figure out how to remove.
They did things for a REASON back then!
Roxanne
I was looking through an old 1940 issue of Ladies Home Journal last week. They have this series called "How America Lives," in which one month shows how the housewife from the chosen family does her chores. She ironed her sheets the "down and dirty" way and seemed to be the technique suggested by LHJ at the time.
This is my first visit to your blog. I've really enjoyed my visit.
Brenda
In the days before polyurethane finishes on furniture that can withstand anything up to an F/A-18 landing, wooden dressers and vanities needed to be protected, as has been pointed out.
It was easier and cheaper to wash and iron a load of "tidies" than to have your dresser-top refinished.
This mania for adorning furniture of course was observed throughout the house; coffee-table runners, anti-maccassars (which I'm not spelling correctly, I'm sure), doilies, etc.
It also was an opportunity to one-up your neighbors by displaying the beautiful needlework you made.
It's nice to know I"m not the only one who puts their washing on the line to dry - you can't beat that fresh smell. I remember my mother rushing out to the line to gather the washing in when I was growing up.
Weenie_Elise, if only my dresser had a pair of mittens!
Thank you all for your input. I can certainly see how dresser scarves could have protected wooden furnishings from scratches, stains, and water marks. They would have been especially useful for people with cherished heirlooms they wanted to protect.
If you had a whole wardrobe of dresser scarves, bureau scarves, etc., that'd also be a quick way to change the look of a room by the season. You might own festive holiday scarves, pastel spring scarves, a set of monogrammed scarves, etc.
Shay, you make a great point, too, about dresser scarves and the like being a great way to show off your needlework. I doubt I'd impress any of my modern callers with some scarves I crocheted or embroidered myself - they'd probably I'd just purchased them - but perhaps I ought to make one for the nightstand in my bedroom. Just to get into the vintage spirit of things...
16 sparrows, I think I'll try the second method myself tonight.
Thanks for visiting my blog, Brenda! Welcome to the '40s...
I have just got around to ironing my sheets. I have to say, nothing more luxerious than sliding into clean fragranet crisp sheets. Although I am the one doing the work, it makes you feel like a princess or that you are staying at a five star hotel. Lovely, sometimes housework makes you feel so LOVERLY!
I think they look a lot better in the linen cabinet when they're all neatly ironed and folded and stacked. They seem to take up a little less room, too, for some reason!
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