COLORED GOODS Care for Colored Goods.—All col ored goods, especially light dress goods having delicate colors, as colored lin ens, muslins, lawns, or cambrics; and prints, as chintz, ginghams, and cali coes, require special care in washing. They must be handled separately from other articles, and in many respects it is better to make a special job of washing fine colored goods on another day than the regular wash day. Care must be taken in washing colored goods that the colors do not soak out or run. This may be prevented in two ways: by a special process in washing, different from the method of washing white goods, and by the ad dition of various substances to the washing or rinsing water to set the colors.
Cautions for Colored Goods.—The best general caution for handling col ored goods is to avoid extremes of heat or cold, to avoid hard wringing, and to wash and do them up as quick ly as possible. They must not be soaked or otherwise delayed in wash ing, boiled, scalded, or exposed to di rect sunlight or the heat of a very hot iron. No form of washing soda, soft soap, or washing powders or fluids containing free alkali should be employed. Use pure white or yellow neutral soap only for this purpose.
Neither must they be allowed to freeze.
To prevent the colors from running they may be set by adding certain sub stances to the suds or rinsing water or both.
Don'ts for Colored Goods. — Don't soak or soap colored goods over night.
Don't boil them, don't wash in hot water, don't use washing fluids, wash ing powders, or anything else con taining the slightest particle of sal soda.
Don't put them all into the tub at once.
Don't let them lie any longer than necessary in the suds, rinsing water, or clothes basket.
Don't hang them up to dry so that the right side will be exposed to the hot sun.
Don't hang them in the sun at all if shade is available.
Don't iron them with a very hot iron.
To Wash Colored Goods.—Sort out the calicoes and other prints, colored linens, etc., and prepare suds with cold or lukewarm water and good hard white or yellow soap. Have at hand a tub of rinsing water contain ing alum, oxgall, or other substances to set the colors. Wash each piece separately, commencing with the light est in color, rinse, and wring it out as quickly as possible, leaving the re maining pieces in a dry state. Wag'
all the colored articles as quickly as possible, turn them wrong side out, and hang them up to dry, if possible, in the shade.
To Suds Colored Goods. — Prepare suds by shaving hard white soap in soft water at the rate of about half a bar to two pailfuls of water. Bring the water to a boil, remove from the fire, and allow it to cool until it will bear the hands comfortably.
Do not rub soap on delicate colored goods. Wash the garments quickly. Put them in the water one at a time, and rub as little as possible; rather souse them up and down in the hot suds. If the suds become foul, pre pare a fresh lather. Wash each gar ment by itself as quickly as possible.
To Wring Colored Goods.—Do not wring out delicate colored articles, but squeeze them gently as dry as possible between the hands.
To Rinse Colored Goods.—Rinse In two or three clear rinsing waters, add ing various ingredients, according to the goods, to set the colors.
To Dry Colored Goods. — Select bright, clear weather to wash delicate and expensive colored garments, and when washed hang them to dry in the shade. The best goods will fade if hung in the sunshine. In freezing weather they may be dried indoors by the fire, as the colors will be irrep arably injured if they are allowed to freeze.
To Wash Calicoes.—An exception to the rule against soaking colored articles is found in the custom of soaking calicoes and other print goods in a strong solution of salt before washing. Authorities variously recom mend soaking the articles in strong salt water for periods of half an hour to over night. We would recommend experimenting with a sample of the goods before soaking delicate or ex pensive fabrics for a long period. First soak new calico garments in strong salt water. Dissolve 3 gills of salt in 1 gallon of hot water, not boil ing. Put in the garments and soak until the colors are thoroughly set. The time required will vary accord ing to the fabrics, and may be deter mined by experimenting with sam ples. We would recommend 15 min utes to a half hour as an average.