Catastrophe!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 426, 22 August 1947, Page 23

Catastrophe!

Dear Aunt Daisy, I am hoping you can help me out of | a difficulty. I have a huge white linen | tablecloth just covered with mildew. I | had used it for. my wee girl’s birthday | party about five’ weeks ago and it got milk spilt on it. I put it in the wash- | house intending to wash it out next day, | but unfortunately was taken ill and had | to go to bed for two weeks. So the cloth was just forgotten until yesterday, when | I found it like this. It was given to me | 25 years ago and such a cloth cannot | be got nowadays. So you see how wor- | ried I am about it. I tried to wash it | yesterday with just soap and water, but | could see it was useless, so have just | Heft it to dry until I hear from you. I | ‘am sure I’ve heard you give instructions for mildew, over the air; and if ever I) get this cloth clean again I'll be most) grateful to you. It looks a hopeless mess | to me. I wonder if I sent it to a laundry | _ whether they could do it for me! Well | here’s hoping anyway. "Featherston." Don’t give up hope yet. There are | several good methods for treating mil- | dew. One is to wet the article, rub with a cake of good washing soap, and then | cover with a thick plaster made of starch | and cold water. As your cloth is so bad’ you might put that starch paste on both | sides. Then spread the cloth out on the grass for 24 to 36 hours, If it rains on it, so much the better. Leave it all night, too, of course. This method can be used safely for coloured things like shirts. But the best thing to use for a white article is Javelle Water-a very old and safe remedy. Leave 1/2Ib. chloride of lime to stand in 2 quarts of cold water overnight. Next day dissolve 1lb. of washing | soda in I quart of boiling water; and when it is cold add it to the lime-water which has been carefully strained through thick cloth. Keep this Javelle Water in a jar or some vessel, and use it in-the proportions of half and half with plain water, soaking the mildewed article, for an hour or more, watching to see the’ mildew fade away. Afterwards rinse very carefully, and then wash and boil in the usual way. This is a bleach; do not use it for coloured things. It can also be used to whiten very discoloured white clothes-always rinsing well ‘afterwards.