Luxury Made Easy: Caring for Linen

Whether you’re cool and casual in a summer dress or have had your bedroom draped in intricately patterned sheets – linen is light-hearted luxury at its best.

Sure, linen is high maintenance, and certainly doesn’t enjoy the same convenience as cotton or denim. While everything you know tells you that it’s a fabric that’s difficult to deal with, we make it worth the effort with these simple care tips that offer the protection it deserves.

No Guess Work: follow the specific washing and drying instructions on the clothing tag to a tee. If you’ve got an affinity for organisation, you could also create a file in which you record these specific instructions (before throwing away the tags) so they come in handy at just the right moment.

Spot Cleaning: take care of stains on the spot, and as soon as you notice them. If you like to get things done yourself, here is a simple do-it-yourself method to take care of stains. First, lay out the material, rub baking soda into the affected area. Allow it to sit, give it time to dissolve. Then, go ahead and add lemon juice, which acts as a bleaching agent, to the affected area.  Finally, wash it as you normally would and line-dry it for a glorious finish. In case the stain still hasn’t gone away, consider using a stain remover. Never put it in the dryer unless you’re sure that the stain has completely vanished, as doing so will cause whatever is left of the stain to set making it a permanent feature.

Washing: always wash linen in cool or luke-warm water, in temperatures below 104 degrees F., never use hot water. When you’re using the machine, ensure that you are on ‘Gentle’ mode and use the extra rinse option for very dirty garments or to remove detergent residue. When it comes to linen and detergent, less is more so use less detergent than usual and avoid bleach altogether. For fabric like the covers of tables, bed skirts or pillow covers – dry clean as opposed to washing in the machine as the latter takes away from the body of the fabric. Remember, pillow cases wear out at a much faster than any other bed linen. You will need to wash your linens twice a week, and more frequently in hot or humid climate.

Drying: the most common mistake made with linen is over-drying. Never leave it in the machine to fully dry, instead remove it when it is slightly damp to avoid excessive wrinkles and stiffness. When hand-drying, do not scrunch or wring the delicate fabric. You’ve got to be prompt, do not procrastinate about folding. A helpful tip for highly wrinkled linen is to throw a damp cloth into the dryer along with the fabric and watch the magic unfold, (pun intended)!

Ironing: it is a commonly known fact that linen is easily wrinkled, maybe even too easily. Remember that you’ve got to pull it out of dryer before it completely dries, and iron linen when it is a bit damp. Then fold it immediately and store away. Opt to hand-iron linen over any other method.

Storage: it would be good to maintain three sets of sheets per bed, that way you can have one in use, while one is in the wash and the third in storage. We recommend that you rotate them so they wear out evenly. Change the bed linen once a week without fail, and more frequently in harsher climatic conditions like heat and humidity.

We always say, when in doubt – leave it to the professionals. Fabricspa boasts of a team of fabric care specialists trained to handle tough stains gently. So, if you’ve tried to care for linen on your own and failed, simply don’t have the time to make the effort or are battling a particularly difficult stain, then we’re always happy to help and are at your service at the click of a button.

Have you downloaded the app yet? Lay your laundry woes in our expert, experienced hands. Schedule a wash today and we’ll see you at the next pick-up!­