RAYON FABRICS.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17980, 27 March 1930, Page 5

RAYON FABRICS.

HINTS ON IRONING. There are many points to remember when using an iron, for, even if very great care is taken with the laundering of a garment, an iron that is even slightly too hot may spoil the whole effect. Now that there are so many synthetic fabrics on the market,. there is even greater need for caution in the matter of ironing. A writer of fashion notes in a London journal recently investigated an instance of a rayon silk jumper that had developed greaselike patches after washing. Inspection showed that the fabric was made from rayon that had been delustred—but in the so-called greasy patches the rayon had recovered its lustre. After various experiments it was found that when this fabric was ironed damp the delustred rayon became lustrous. The fabric was one that required to be ironed while dry. The only cure in a case of this type is to dampen the fabric all over and make it all lustrous. Usually, however, it is advisable to iron fabrics while they are evenly damp—not just splashed with water here and there. Extreme Care Necessary. During the ironing of cellulose acetate rayon, extreme care is necessary. If the iron is 100 hot the rayon melts and becomes glazed and weak, or may even stick to the iron. For \ pressing this kind of material the iron | should be only moderately warm. For I the smoothing of white silk the iron must not be too hot. An iron not hot enough to scorch cotton will cause white silk to become yellow. Never

iron a coloured fabric in contact with other materials or portions of itself. Some colours are quite fast to light and washing, hut they mark off in hot ironing. On coloured fabrics it is a godci policy never to use an iron hotter than is necessary to secure good smoothing. Most materials receive slight stretchings in manufacture, which disappear on washing, so giving slight shrinkage. Sometimes, of course, the fabrics are deliberately stretched, causing excessive shrinkage after washing. Such fabrics are objectionable. Experiment with a number of fabrics of all types (including wool taffeta) lias shown that when ironed damp the shrinkage is least. As an example, when a rayon cloth was washed and ironed dry its width increased by 3£ per cent. Where' shrinkage has occurred in cloths, smoothing while evenly damp may rectify matters. If this fails it is frequently possible to reduce shrinkage considerably, or to overcome it, if the cloth is pulled in the required direction at the same time as it is ironed.