Laundry Day at the Campbell Center

Today we were wet cleaning and repairing a variety of textiles -  learning supportive ways of handling textiles, which are most fragile when the are wet.

One of the students with Harold Mailand, our instructor, wet cleaning a woven and embroidered cotton bag  from India..

I had recently purchased these cotton textiles - star patterned cushion cover and a package of 24 vintage crazy quilt squares - at a little antique shop in northern Wisconsin. they were musty and had yellow and tan spotting on them.

After washing in Orvus paste - a very gentle detergent - these piece were put outside  at mid-day to "solar bleach". In only an hour there were already changes; in two they were quite beautiful - bright and stain free. As soon as the whites were clear, the pieces came out of the sun so that the colours wouldn't fade. 




Voila!