Now Take Them for a Spin
Like the washing machine, the automatic dryer has made life much easier for modern families. Dryers mean dry clothes in winter, on rainy days, and in crowded cities, where even if you could stretch a line between buildings, the smog from factories and automobile traffic would leave your clothes sooty. And as with washing machines, there are tricks in using dryers that can help you dry clothes without wrinkling or damaging them.
Check clothes for stains before drying. If you overlook a stain that the washer failed to remove, you could set it permanently by drying it. If you find a stain, treat the stain and rewash.
Shake damp pieces before drying. This loosens them and helps them dry faster and more competely. Pull out anything that you want to line dry.
Don't overload the dryer. A dryer needs airflow to do its work. Clothes that are bunched up in a dryer will take longer to dry and will wrinkle more easily.
Don't underload the dryer. Believe it or not, a nearly empty dryer does not work as well as one that is fuller (but not too full). The tumbling effect is reduced in dryers with small loads, and that prolongs the drying period. If you must dry a small load, find a few towels that are already clean and dry and of a color similar to the wet clothes, and tools them into the dryer to improve the process.
Use the right setting. Most dryers have automatic settings:
The permanent press cycle typically features a cool-down period after the drying is completed to reduce wrinkling.
Avoid overdrying. Leaving clothes in the dryer too long causes shrinkage, static buildup, and wrinkling. Overdrying actually sets wrinkles, making them hard to remove.
To reduce wrinkling, remove items from the dryer as soon as they are dry. And don't let them lie in a heap in the basket. Hang them up or fold them as soon as possible.
Remove permanent press items while they are damp and hang them on a rustproof hanger. Close buttons and snaps, straighten creases, and brush out any wrinkles.
Clean the lint filter after each use. Not only does this improve airflows, which makes the dryer work better, but it also reduces the chance of a dryer fire.
Use a mesh bag for drying nylon hosiery. It will protect those delicate items.
For items that call for flat drying, such as sweaters, squeeze out excess water (but don't wring,or you may cause wrinkling). Roll the garment in a clean, dry towel to absorb water. Then shape and lay out flat on a dry towel or drying rack.
Pressing Issues
The goal for most people is to do as little ironing as possible. On the other hand, most people like the results that ironing gives them--crisp, unwrinkled shirts and slacks with respectable creases. How else to explain the explosion of permanent press and no-iron fabrics?
Sometimes you have to iron, however, and when you do, you want to be effective. Here's how, plus a tip or two for making the job easier.
Wash and dry your clothes correctly. Follow the previous advice for reducing wrinkles before your clothes get near the ironing board. Chief among that advice: Don't overload your dryer and don't overdry your clothes. Sometimes all you need to do is smooth garment with your hands and fold it or hang it and put it away. Dry things well, and you will cut your ironing time down considerably.
Try touch-up ironing. Instead of giving a garment the full going over, you might just have to run your iron quickly over collars and cuffs.
Read care labels. They will instruct you in the best technique for ironing a particular garment.
Keep your equipment handy. Don't pile boxes in front of your ironing board or leave your iron in a tangle of cords on the closet floor. The setup hassles will discourage you from ironing the next time. And the next time. And the next.
Keep your ironing board and iron clean. Otherwise, you might stain clothes the next time you iron them.
Sort items by ironing temperature. Start with low-temp fabrics, such as skills and synthetics, and move on to high-temp items, such as cottons and linens.
Iron clothes while they are still damp. This makes the job easier, since wrinkles are not as set in the fabric. When you've finished ironing, hang your garments
immediately to help them stay fresh and pressed.
To keep wrinkling to a minimum, start ironing with small areas, such as cuffs, collors, and sleeves and then work your way to the larger areas. Iron lengthwise on fabric; this will help prevent
the fabric from stretching.
Never iron stains. The heat will set the stains permanently.
No Stain, NO pain: The miracle of Nanotechnology
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Picture the scene: You're at a dinner party having a great time when a stray elbow bumps your glass of merlot and wine splashes into your lap. You don't panic. You don't cry. There's no need for club soda, no soaking and blotting and more soaking and blotting. You simply wipe the spill off your clothes with a paper towel and ask for a refill. NO, you're not wearing some racy new rubber suit. You're wearing stain-resistant clothing made possible through nanotechnology.
Scientists are using nanotechnology--the manipulation of materials on an atomic or molecular scale--to treat certain natural and synthetic textiles so they are stain-, wrinkle-, and waterproof. One way is by coating a fabric's fibers with microscopic liquid-repelling nanowhishkers (billions of atoms in structures that look like hairs or whiskers).
Each whisker measures 10 nanometers long. (Nano- means "billionth," so a nanometer equals one billionth of a meter.) How small is that? Well, a single grain of sand measures 100,000 nanometers across.
The application of nanotechnology to textiles works better than the more familiar method of stainproofing fabrics--coating them with a special layer of abric protector such as Scotchgard. Such treatments wear off and make fabric stiff, even shiny. Fibers that have been altered molecularly don't change. Neither does the feel of the fabric. You can't even tell there's a stain-resistant treatment on it. Then, because the nanowhiskers create a barrier of air around the fabric fibers, the spill simply beads up and rolls off or waits patiently to be removed.
Developed by a company called Nano-Tex, which licenses its techniques to manufacturers, nanotech textile products are already on the market, under brand names such as Lee, Gap, Eddie Bauer, and Land's End. The next break through from Nano-Tex? Clothes that don't absorb odors. Smells like a good idea.
Like the washing machine, the automatic dryer has made life much easier for modern families. Dryers mean dry clothes in winter, on rainy days, and in crowded cities, where even if you could stretch a line between buildings, the smog from factories and automobile traffic would leave your clothes sooty. And as with washing machines, there are tricks in using dryers that can help you dry clothes without wrinkling or damaging them.
Check clothes for stains before drying. If you overlook a stain that the washer failed to remove, you could set it permanently by drying it. If you find a stain, treat the stain and rewash.
Shake damp pieces before drying. This loosens them and helps them dry faster and more competely. Pull out anything that you want to line dry.
Don't overload the dryer. A dryer needs airflow to do its work. Clothes that are bunched up in a dryer will take longer to dry and will wrinkle more easily.
Don't underload the dryer. Believe it or not, a nearly empty dryer does not work as well as one that is fuller (but not too full). The tumbling effect is reduced in dryers with small loads, and that prolongs the drying period. If you must dry a small load, find a few towels that are already clean and dry and of a color similar to the wet clothes, and tools them into the dryer to improve the process.
Use the right setting. Most dryers have automatic settings:
- Regular, for loads made up mostly of all-cotton fabrics
- Permanent press, for synthetics
- Cool or low, for lingerie, hand-washables, washable woolens, and heat-sensitive items marked "tumble dry-low"
The permanent press cycle typically features a cool-down period after the drying is completed to reduce wrinkling.
Avoid overdrying. Leaving clothes in the dryer too long causes shrinkage, static buildup, and wrinkling. Overdrying actually sets wrinkles, making them hard to remove.
To reduce wrinkling, remove items from the dryer as soon as they are dry. And don't let them lie in a heap in the basket. Hang them up or fold them as soon as possible.
Remove permanent press items while they are damp and hang them on a rustproof hanger. Close buttons and snaps, straighten creases, and brush out any wrinkles.
Clean the lint filter after each use. Not only does this improve airflows, which makes the dryer work better, but it also reduces the chance of a dryer fire.
Use a mesh bag for drying nylon hosiery. It will protect those delicate items.
For items that call for flat drying, such as sweaters, squeeze out excess water (but don't wring,or you may cause wrinkling). Roll the garment in a clean, dry towel to absorb water. Then shape and lay out flat on a dry towel or drying rack.
Pressing Issues
The goal for most people is to do as little ironing as possible. On the other hand, most people like the results that ironing gives them--crisp, unwrinkled shirts and slacks with respectable creases. How else to explain the explosion of permanent press and no-iron fabrics?
Sometimes you have to iron, however, and when you do, you want to be effective. Here's how, plus a tip or two for making the job easier.
Wash and dry your clothes correctly. Follow the previous advice for reducing wrinkles before your clothes get near the ironing board. Chief among that advice: Don't overload your dryer and don't overdry your clothes. Sometimes all you need to do is smooth garment with your hands and fold it or hang it and put it away. Dry things well, and you will cut your ironing time down considerably.
Try touch-up ironing. Instead of giving a garment the full going over, you might just have to run your iron quickly over collars and cuffs.
Read care labels. They will instruct you in the best technique for ironing a particular garment.
Keep your equipment handy. Don't pile boxes in front of your ironing board or leave your iron in a tangle of cords on the closet floor. The setup hassles will discourage you from ironing the next time. And the next time. And the next.
Keep your ironing board and iron clean. Otherwise, you might stain clothes the next time you iron them.
Sort items by ironing temperature. Start with low-temp fabrics, such as skills and synthetics, and move on to high-temp items, such as cottons and linens.
Iron clothes while they are still damp. This makes the job easier, since wrinkles are not as set in the fabric. When you've finished ironing, hang your garments
immediately to help them stay fresh and pressed.
To keep wrinkling to a minimum, start ironing with small areas, such as cuffs, collors, and sleeves and then work your way to the larger areas. Iron lengthwise on fabric; this will help prevent
the fabric from stretching.
Never iron stains. The heat will set the stains permanently.
No Stain, NO pain: The miracle of Nanotechnology
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Picture the scene: You're at a dinner party having a great time when a stray elbow bumps your glass of merlot and wine splashes into your lap. You don't panic. You don't cry. There's no need for club soda, no soaking and blotting and more soaking and blotting. You simply wipe the spill off your clothes with a paper towel and ask for a refill. NO, you're not wearing some racy new rubber suit. You're wearing stain-resistant clothing made possible through nanotechnology.
Each whisker measures 10 nanometers long. (Nano- means "billionth," so a nanometer equals one billionth of a meter.) How small is that? Well, a single grain of sand measures 100,000 nanometers across.
The application of nanotechnology to textiles works better than the more familiar method of stainproofing fabrics--coating them with a special layer of abric protector such as Scotchgard. Such treatments wear off and make fabric stiff, even shiny. Fibers that have been altered molecularly don't change. Neither does the feel of the fabric. You can't even tell there's a stain-resistant treatment on it. Then, because the nanowhiskers create a barrier of air around the fabric fibers, the spill simply beads up and rolls off or waits patiently to be removed.
Developed by a company called Nano-Tex, which licenses its techniques to manufacturers, nanotech textile products are already on the market, under brand names such as Lee, Gap, Eddie Bauer, and Land's End. The next break through from Nano-Tex? Clothes that don't absorb odors. Smells like a good idea.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment