The Orenburg downy shawl is rightfully considered the most recognizable symbol of Russian fashion abroad. The industry, 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 old craft. A careful attitude to traditions, combined with the imagination and talent of modern knitters turned it into something much more important than an element of the wardrobe. A scarf made of the finest goat fluff gives a woman warmth, which is so sometimes lacking in the rapid course of life. She threw it over her shoulders and felt protected from all adversities, as if she had covered a guardian angel with her wing! It is rare that a woman is able to resist the acquisition of such a wonderful product.
The finest work of art requires appropriate care, careful and accurate. Only then will a down scarf please its owner with warmth, tenderness and beauty for many years. The less you wash it, the longer it will last.
Regular care of a goat down scarf
Individual contaminants can be cleaned without thinking too much about how to wash a down scarf 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 spot remain, repeat the treatment.
Spray from street dirt also should not be hastily washed. After drying, they can be removed with a brush.
In winter, you can refresh the scarf with snow. If you hang it in the snow on an open loggia or balcony for several hours, the frosty air will remove all extraneous odors - the scarf will become soft and fluffy. You can apply the delicate rubbing of the scarf with dry, clean snow or talc. The effect will be noticeable immediately. And it will allow for some time to forget about how to wash a down 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 down scarf from goat down at home.
Pens, only pens!
It should be remembered that down products do not tolerate dry cleaning and machine wash - they are washed only by hand! Washing in the car will not protect it from friction against the walls of the drum and temperature drops, to which goat fluff is very sensitive, no matter what mode is set. So how to wash a down scarf and dry it at home?
Preparing a downy shawl for washing
The preparatory phase 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 thoroughly combing down products. The final result largely depends on this process.
Combing down
Before washing the downy shawl, the down should be combed carefully and efficiently, otherwise it may fall off during the washing process. With a strong shake, the shawl is laid out on the table and gently combed with a soft nylon or brush with wooden teeth.
After unraveling the larger knots of fluff, the brush is replaced with a conventional comb with rounded teeth. Comb with light movements, without touching the loop of the knitted fabric. The quality performance of this stage depends on how soft and fluffy the shawl will remain after washing.
Handkerchiefs and cobwebs do not comb.
How to avoid deformation of the shape of the scarf?
In order not to deform the teeth framing the edge of the product, they must be assembled with a needle on a strong thread. You can use a gypsy needle, but you need to be careful when working so as not to break the thread of the scarf. It is better to take a strong silk thread, its length should be at least the perimeter of the scarf plus 50-60 cm.
They begin to assemble from the corner of the product. A needle and thread are threaded into the top of the clove of the scarf. Next, sequentially thread a needle and thread into each subsequent clove, without gaps. The tip of the needle is always directed toward itself; it pierces the cloves without twisting them. The quality of this step depends on whether you are able to maintain the shape of the product and the same size of teeth after washing. Depending on the size of the scarf and the skill of using the needle, this preparation step 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.
What to wash: choose a detergent
At this stage, the question: "How to wash a down scarf at home?" gives way to the question: "What to wash?".
Do not use washing powder, the remains of which are very difficult to rinse from the product. In addition, poorly dissolved powder granules settle on delicate fibers of fluff, and after washing the handkerchief will lose its original fluffy appearance. One of the best tools for washing goat down scarves is Laska with the effect of restoring the elasticity of the fibers.
You can also use herbal shampoo, a neutral liquid soap without dyes, conditioner for hair or linen.
What about bleach? But how then to wash a white down scarf?
Bleaches - a categorical taboo for washing down products.
Washing a shawl
Here it is, the long-awaited answer to the question: "How to wash a down scarf at home?"
When washing products from goat down, 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 the loss of size and beauty of the scarf. Detergent must be completely dissolved in water. Do not direct a stream of water from a tap onto a scarf, especially a cobweb or stole,. When washing and rinsing, it is unacceptable to rub, stretch, twist, raise the scarf by the corners. Only soft, delicate squeezing movements. As if kneading soft dough. The washing container should be selected so that the solution completely covers the handkerchief. A scarf is taken out of the solution, collected in a lump in the water with both hands, avoiding drooping and stretching.
If the product is very dirty, it can be soaked for 20-25 minutes.
Rinse several times until the water is clear. For the penultimate rinse, a solution of table vinegar is used: one tablespoon per five liters of water. Last rinse with added conditioner for down products.
Squeeze the handkerchief in the same delicate, gentle movements as when washing. After such an extraction, there is still a lot of water in it, so the scarf is placed in a grid and suspended for a while to drain the water. Then they are laid out on a terry towel of the appropriate size, rolled up and squeezed out gently, without twisting. Such an extraction does not deform the handkerchief, but removes excess moisture.
Handkerchief whitening
Washing a white down scarf is similar. But a yellowed, lost its whiteness shawl needs to be bleached. For whitening fluff, hydrogen peroxide or hydroperite tablets are used, at the rate of five tablets or twenty grams of peroxide per hundred grams of the weight of the scarf. The amount of water is determined by the size of the container and the scarf: the bleaching solution should completely cover the product. Ammonia is added to the solution at the rate of one tablespoon per liter of water.
The shawl is bleached for 6-12 hours, not forgetting that the temperature regime is observed. To maintain the optimum temperature, it is best to use an heating pad.
After bleaching, rinse the product thoroughly.
How to dry a handkerchief?
The product is dried exclusively in stretched form, the only way to save the shape of the scarf.
There are two ways to dry: without a frame, spreading it on a prepared bedding, and on a special drying frame, corresponding to the size of the scarf.
The place to dry your handkerchief should be chosen away from the kitchen and smoking area, as the moist fluff just instantly absorbs odors. Dried at room temperature, avoiding direct sunlight.
For drying without a frame, spread a towel or other absorbent fabric slightly larger than a scarf on a soft base (sofa, bed, carpet). If a dense scarf is to be dried, then polyethylene is spread under the fabric. Shake the shawl to fluff down the fibers of the fluff, and carefully spread in a prepared place. All the cloves of the scarf are fixed with tailor pins, pinning not the scarf itself to the litter, but the thread on which the cloves of the scarf were collected at the preparatory stage for washing. In this case, it is important not to allow distortions, the scarf should take its original shape.
If there is a frame, then the scarf is fixed in the same way on it. No litter is attached to the frame.
It is important that when the scarf is fixed with pins on the litter or drying frame, it is wet. A warm shawl 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 gun.
In the drying process, it is recommended to shake the shawl periodically to give it bulkiness. This is convenient if it is mounted on a drying frame. If it is dried on a litter, then to give the scarf additional softness and volume, a slightly moist handkerchief is loosely folded, placed in a bag and sent for 2-3 hours in the freezer.
Reviews
Owners of down scarves and stoles, according to reviews, wash them exclusively by hand and dry in a straightened state with fixation with a clove. Most of them do not use a drying frame. In the comments there were some original tips: pin a handkerchief on a carpet hanging on the wall, or on a wall pasted with wallpaper.
Some representatives of the fair sex refuse to purchase products from goat fluff, considering caring for them too time-consuming.