St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-08-08
Sponging Dress Goods.

One of the worst stumbling blocks in
the path of the amateur dressmaker
or, indeed, that Of the professional Of
ten is the difficulty of properly shrink
ing certain materials before they are
suitable to be fashioned into wearing
apparel In regard to this bugbear a
Good Housekeeping correspondent
gives some sensible suggestions, from
which the following Is learned:
This operation Of shrinking, or spong-
ing, as it Ia termed by tailors, is essen
tial whenever broadcloths, ladies' cloths
or fine fiannels are employed in order
to prevent future spotting. cooking or
shrinking from rain or dampness. In
the finer grade of cloths kept in stock
by leading houses in large cities these
goods are often. sold warranted as
steam sponged. Unless 80 guaranteed,
however, the extra work should not be
passed by. To many women the home
management seems too risky to be I'M
dertaken, for the reason that much OF
the rich appearance of fine, handsome
cloth could be easily injured by care
less handling.
Supposing, however, that the anna
teur does not care to pay the tailor 81
or SO or, what is far more probable,
suppose that she Is out of the reach OF
a knight of the shears" Some friend
will tell her that damp cloth must be
Lot Tho Goods onH that fbpn il
should be pressed upon the wrong side.
She views the billowy heap of six or
eight yards (Which she has unrolled to
estimate the task with dismay, for
how can she ever dampen and press
evenly all of that huge pile Of cloth
for huge it looks to her anxious eyes2
Surely one part will dry long before
the rest and the marks where the iron
stopped will be unmistakable. She is
satisfied that to undertake the work in
so laundering and awkward way
would be worse than letting the fabric
go unSponged.
Then the next time she asks for adj
vice it is from some one who knows,
for the first instructor was merely a
theorist and had never put into practice
that which she preached. This time
our amateur goes to work with bet
ter heart and first carefully dampens
large sheet and neatly folds the cloth
therein, wrapping the bundle smoothly
with a blanket to keep the dampness
even. This answers better perhaps,
but why not put brains to work and
try to improve upon even this make
shift way?
Have you never thought when you
have seen Bridget taking the half dried
wash from the clothesline on "blue
Monday" that perhaps you might Dor
row a suggestion from her work?
! Then, again, are not clothes left out
upon the line overnight thoroughly and
evenly dampened by morning? What,
pray, is there to prevent taking your
full length of new cloth out to this
same clothesline some night after dark
ness sets, when the air is damp, but no
rain threatens, and allowing it to re-
HILL udHSluS LHeIeLIoLl, securely las
tened with clothespins, until the fol-
lowing morning?
The following morning the sun will
at an early hour place the cloth in ex
actly the proper state for easy press
ing, for the material may be brought
into the house when at any desired
state Of dampness or dryness. Then,
by keeping the impressed portion
smoothly folded, so that it will remain
as damp as is required, the cloth may
be ironed quickly and easily and with
out furry or nervous strain. Try it
and avoid the tailor's bill