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Care of wool clothing before the invention of modern dry cleaning

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nurseinthemood

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Hello Gentlemen:

For my first ever post I would like to ask about the care of wool clothing. Obviously suits and such must be professionally cleaned. But what about a pair of woolen pants, for example some of the ones you can find at Orvis? I am looking for a pair of nice quality wool pants that I can wear daily and not have to dry clean, pants (or trousers as I know some of you prefer to call them) I take on a walk and not worry about a little mud getting on them. How would an English gentleman of 1850 have taken care of his pants? Not that I am an English gentleman! I am just looking for an alternative to the chinos/jeans thing that avoids the nastiness/expense of dry cleaning. I am willing to invest time in the proper care of right type of clothing.

I look forward to your advice! :icon_smile_wink:
 
#2 ·
Washable woolens exist. Buy one.
 
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#3 ·
For my wool trousers, I simply wash them on the Hand Wash cycle (with cold water, slow spin), then allow them to hand dry. This works very well for me, and I have never had a problem.

I would also be interested in what exactly was done prior to modern dry cleaning, though.
 
#5 ·
zzdocxx said:
Hmmm, I wonder if they used Woolite?

Edit: Found a thread on this exact subject on SF from 2008.
Click to expand...
Do you have a link? If not, what did you put into the SF search engine?
 
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#7 ·
nurseinthemood said:
Hello Gentlemen:
I am looking for a pair of nice quality wool pants that I can wear daily and not have to dry clean, pants (or trousers as I know some of you prefer to call them) I take on a walk and not worry about a little mud getting on them. How would an English gentleman of 1850 have taken care of his pants? ... I am just looking for an alternative...
Click to expand...
On the one hand, the gentleman as given would not have concerned himself with such things, His wife see to the matters of staff and their suitable maintenance of the house, kitchen, cellars, and his manager to see to the grounds, fields, stock, and stables. His butler would ensure his wardrobe was suitable to his activities of the day, and he would never need to concern himself with any of these matters. But that is not to speak to your real question which is what to do when you have a splash of soil on your trousers. And as you have no butler, housemaids, nor staff in-house, you are on your own. What to do? Has the spot dried on the surface of the pant? Probably just brush as usual and rehang until it airs out a bit and may be returned to the closet with the other items in rotation. No problem.

Should it have soaked through, wait until dry, then brush both sides. If a residue should be present at that point, (post brushing and hanging, then, dampen towel with cool water and hold against one side of the garment, and hold a dry towel against the other side of the garment to use the natural wick of the material to pull the moistened soil and liquid from the damp to the dry with a bit of daubing of the dry material of the towel against the material with the spot. Then, let dry and brush and hang until ready to be returned to rotation.

Should the spot contain something other than dirt and rain, other measures may be required. A broader subject which one would not assay at this point in our relationship... Should your question refer to blood, wine or other kinds debris, there may be simple answers, but every one would need a particular solution.

So, I shall brush and hang and only further advise that one should have more than one of any such thing as this to prevent early retirement and additional queries about replacing one garment with a suitable substitute.

Why would I wear the same suit of clothes from one month to the next? The weather changes every day, and so do I and my attire as may be appropriate to the moment as well.

good fortune,
rudy
 
#8 ·
A clothes brush would have done for the 1850 gentleman for daily mud spatters. He (or his valet or wife) would have waited until the mud was thoroughly dry. It's still the best way to keep wool from too-frequent trips to the cleaners, plus it raises nap, slows the development of shine, and knocks off any moth eggs adhering to garments.
 
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#9 ·
I have a nice front loading washer which has some nice features such as a steamer cycle and a "hand wash/wool" cycle. I very much dislike drycleaning and have been washing my wool slacks on the hand wash/wool setting. So far I've had no problems at all, and I've had most of these slacks since black Friday of 2008. I just hang dry them. They do need to be pressed afterwards and have the crease put back in. I usually put on a movie/documentary/football game and just do a whole batch at once. It has worked well for me, and no chemicals blasted all over my clothes. You definitely do need to press though, to return structure to your pants.
 
#10 ·
I may compile this washing wool trousers tips:

MacTweed said:
For my wool trousers, I simply wash them on the Hand Wash cycle (with cold water, slow spin), then allow them to hand dry. This works very well for me, and I have never had a problem. ...
Click to expand...
WBuffettJr said:
I have a nice front loading washer which has some nice features such as a steamer cycle and a "hand wash/wool" cycle. I very much dislike drycleaning and have been washing my wool slacks on the hand wash/wool setting. So far I've had no problems at all, and I've had most of these slacks since black Friday of 2008. I just hang dry them. They do need to be pressed afterwards and have the crease put back in. ...
Click to expand...
Wash in cold water on the most delicate cycle, hang dry and/or iron while damp.

Any additions/corrections/deletes?
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
Gentlemen:

Thank you for the responses. I consulted Andy's Encyclopedia but there is nothing addressing this issue. I am glad Andy has taken an interest in this thread. Maybe this can work its way into the Encyclopedia?

Here is a link to a website started by two Cornell "Fiber Science" (!) graduates. This particular clip is about washing wool but they have a lot more information on their site. Would love to see what you all think about this!



Thanks again,

NITM
 
#12 ·
May I humbly suggest that the woolens be ironed through a damp cloth? I remember doing that to my Pendleton shirts of many years ago and they always came out beautifully. I suspect that the same would work for trousers, especially tweeds.
 
#13 ·
In my days in the US Civil War, we would just let the mud dry, then brush it off. Occasionally my trousers would be hung up to dry and air out in the natural breezes. Okay, it was my days as a reenactor of the US Civil War, but I would consider that to be a rather authentic method of dealing with soiled wool trousers in the 19th century. Then again, we wore cotton long underwear under the trousers, and after probably 6 or 7 years of reenacting, my trousers still never had a proper "dry cleaning". :eek2:

Andy B.
 
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andy b.
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