Monday, March 26, 2007

Dry-Clean Only

I don't normally "do" kits, but I'm currently embroidering a tablecloth and napkins from a kit I was kindly given. However, on reading the instructions I was amazed to find the direction "dry-clean only". It's a tablecloth! What the hell is the point of a dry-clean-only tablecloth?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dry cleaning is one of my environmental pet-peeves (it's a big list too). I already wash everything in cold and put very few things in the dryer (except I live in a small apartment and only have so much space for drying things so some things like sheets need to go in). But I have a couple of skirts that I would like to keep forever and so dry cleaning is recommended over hand-washing. I truly hate taking things to the cleaners but don't know any other option on how to keep certain articles of clothing for a long time. Luckily I don't work in an industry where I have to wear a lot of dry-clean only clothes - it's mostly jeans and t's where I work.

Anyway, maybe hand-washing and hanging to dry will work for your table cloth. I'm with you on the "what is the point of drying cleaning a table cloth!"

RUTH said...

How ridiculous!! Definitely not fit for its purpose...crazy. Maybe you should use it as a wall hanging behind glass instead.

Prufrax said...

I am reminded of the time Tom bought Qui a white dry-clean-only designer kids dress(!)
And then when she wore it for the first time - he gave her a chocolate icecream to eat...

Anonymous said...

Hi Melanie

I have been reading your blog for some time now and love it.
i have found that "dry clean" items are also washable if you are careful. First soak for a few minutes in cold water to which a half cup of vinegar has been added. This will set the colours of the embroidery thread. Then hand wash the whole tablecloth with a mild detergent and hang to dry out of the sun. Hope this helps.
Nanci

Melanie Rimmer said...

Yes, I intend to handwash it. Dammit, I might even stick the thing in the machine at some point and just see what happens. I think I've had items dry-cleaned about twice in my whole life. Most things labelled "dry clean only" seem to survive careful hand washing or even machine washing. Anything that doesn't survive is deemed "I never really liked that anyway".