413. Directions For Cleaning Silk Goods

When silk cushions, or silk coverings to furniture, become dingy, rub- dry bran on it gently, with a woollen cloth, till clean. Remove grease spots and stains as in direction No. 410. Silk garments should have the spots extracted before being washed - use hard soap for all colors but yellow, for which soft soap is the best. Put the soap into hot water, beat it till it is perfectly dissolved, then add sufficient cold water to make it just lukewarm. Put in the silks, and rub them in it till clean; take them out without wringing, and rinse them in fair lukewarm water. Rinse it in another water, and for bright yellows, crimsons, and maroons, add sulphuric acid enough to the water to give it an acid taste, before rinsing the garment in it. To restore the colors of the different shades of pink, put in the second rinsing water a little vinegar or lemon juice. For scarlet, use a solution of tin; for blues, purples, and their shades, use pearl ash; and for olive-greens, dissolve verdigris in the rinsing water - fawn and browns should be rinsed in pure water. Dip the silks up and down in the rinsing water; take them out of it without wringing, and dry them in the shade. Fold them up while damp: let them remain to have the dampness strike through all parts of them alike, then put them in a mangier - if you have not one, iron them On the wrong side, with an iron only just hot enough to smooth them. A little isinglass or gum arable, dissolved in the rinsing water of gauze shawls and ribbons, is good to stiffen them. The water in which pared potatoes have been boiled, is an excellent thing to wash black silks in - it stiffens, and makes them glossy and black. Beef's gall and lukewarm water is also a nice thing to restore rusty silk, and soap-suds answers very well. They look better not to be rinsed in clear water, but they should be washed in two different waters.

414. Directions For Washing Woollens

If you do not wish to have white flannels shrink when washed, make a good suds of hard soap, and wash the flannels in it, without rubbing any soap on them ; rub them out in another suds, then wring them out of it, and put them in a clean tub, and turn on sufficient boiling water to cover them, and let them remain till the water is cold. A little indigo in the boiling water makes the flannels look nicer. If you wish to have your white flannels shrink, so as to have them thick, wash them in soft soap-suds, and rinse them in cold water. Colored woollens that incline to fade, should be washed with beet's gall and warm water before they are put into soap-suds. Colored pantaloons look very well washed with beef's gall and fair warm water, and pressed on the wrong side while damp.

415. Directions For Washing White Cotton Clothes

Table-cloths, or any white clothes that have coffee or fruit stains on them, before being put into soap-suds, should have boiling water turned on them, and remain in it till the water is cold - the spots should be then rubbed out in it. If they are put into soap-suds with the stains in, they will be set by it, so that no subsequent washing will remove them. Table-cloths will be less likely to get stained up, if they are always rinsed in thin starch water, as it tends to keep coffee and fruit from sinking into the texture of the cloth. White clothes that are very dirty, will come clean easily if put into strong, cool suds and hung on the fire the night previous to the day in which they are to bo washed. If they get to boiling, it will not do them any harm, provided the suds is cool when they are put in; if it is hot at first, it will set the dirt in. The following method of washing clothes is a saving of a great deal of labor: Soak the clothes in lukewarm soap-suds; if they are quite dirty, soak them over night. To every three pails of water put a pint of soft soap, and a table-spoonful of the salts of soda. Heat it till mildly warm, then put in the clothes without any rubbing, and boil them an hour. Drain the suds out of them as much as possible, as it is bad for the hands; then add water till cool enough for the hands. The dirt will be loose, so that they will require but a little rubbing, Rinse them thoroughly in clear water, then in indigo water The soda can be procured cheap, by purchasing it in large quantities - soda is an excellent thing to soften hard water. The soda suds will not do to wash calicoes in. It is a good plan to save your suds, after washing, to water your garden, if you have one, or to harden cellars and yards, when sandy.