It is all about you to know about some work going on there something else a homemaker thinks about in the springtime window curtains for the house new ones or how to freshen up the old ones here in Washington.
Where it gets so hot and steamy in summer lots of us take down the winter draperies and don’t put up any in the summer but some people don t like to leave the house looking that bare and in some places there the summer is cool its pleasant to have thin curtains at the windows they keep out glare give more privacy.
There is something very restful and relaxing about a filmy vitrain swaying gently at the window in the summer breeze marquisette of course is one of the popular materials for thin curtains it gives good service.
You get a good quality so to find out what service it s reasonable to expect from different qualities of marquisette Bess Viemont Morrison is running tests on 28 different kinds work with curtains of course is nothing new for her Bess Viemont Morrison is the same Bess Viemont who write our bulletin on window curtaining everybody who uses that says it s a regular handbook.
It does tell how to go about making all kinds of curtains over- draperies draw curtains glass curtains French headings pinch pleats everything a well-made curtain should have if it s going to hand true and even but you’d laugh if you saw the curtains that has made from these marquisettes on test they look like patch vjork they’re made of half-yard pieces of 28 different kinds the objects of this test is to find the effect of light and heat and dirt and laundering different qualities of marquisettes to the light these windows are on the east side of the building.
So the curtains get a good deal of sunlight there s a radiator underneath each window with the heat and the dust rising straight up through the curtains and there are screens in the windows the curtains rue against them and get a lot of wear that was too and occasionally they how out the window every two months the curtains are washed and dried and put up again this has been going on now since last septicemic.
Hog inning to get some very interesting results especially on the way you can expect curtain marquisette to shrink she finds that the void fine all-cotton marquisette shrinks more crosswise than lengthwise several of the 40 -inch wide fabrics came doom to 32 inches after they were washed.
So it s best to have fine cotton marquisette curtains very full at the start full enough to allow for this Srinagar otherwise they will soon look stringy that goes for the all-cotton the cotton-and -rayon mixed and the all-rayon drew up hike much more in length than they shrank in width figured on the standard length of a curtain some of these rayon marquisettes shrank 10 to 12 inches so anybody who happens to be malcing or hanging rayon marquisette curtains better start with them very long hang them so they come to the bottom of the apron on the window casing that wide strip of wood below the sill and put a double fold in the curtain heading.
You will need all this extra length when the marquisette shticks and you will probably end up with curtains hanging just to the sill in the course of our talk about her research on fabrics volunteered some suggestions about washing curtains she happened to have a letter there on her desk asking whether it was better to dry clean or wash and vitiator to put on curtain stretchers or mangle or use an iron.
This was from some very nice thin rayon curtains wherever its possible advises good muckworm soapsuds made with neutral soap the dirt in curtains is mostly dust hot the kind of dirt that dry cleaning solvents take out very well soap and water does a better job machine and don’t crowd the curtains two pairs to a bag are enough then wet them in cool water before you put them into the warm suds by the way make it heavy suds with plenty of soap.
If you put very soiled curtains right into warm suds you set the dirt they come out looking grimy then don t spare the rinse water put the curtains through at least throe rinses to take out all the soap have the rinse water just the same as the suds and add a little starch to the final rinse when it comes to drying marquisette curtains.
It is considered which is best to roll them up in a towel and iron them while they’re still damp if you put them on curtain stretchers with pins the hems will dry in scallops and if you hang them up at the window and put a curtain rod in the hot torn hem you encourage the marquisette to shrink cork crosswise of course if your curtains are wide enough to stand that its a good way to keep the hems straight.