499. To Make Starch for Colored Articles

499.    To Make Starch for Colored Articles. For starching muslins, ginghams, and calicoes, dissolve and add to every pint of starch, a piece of alum the size of a shell-bark. By so doing, the colors will keep bright for a long time, which is very desirable when dresses must be often washed, and the cost is but a trifle.

500. To Starch Muslins and Piques

500.    To Starch Muslins and Piques. In getting up muslins and piqu'es, the failure is not generally in the washing, but in the starching. A good-sized panful of starch should be used, in which 3 or 4 inches of spermaceti candle has been melted whilst hot. The articles should be thoroughly squeezed from the starch, and folded whilst wet, between folds of old sheeting or table linen. They should then be passed through a wringing machine. All lumps of starch are thus removed.

Piqu'es should be ironed as lightly as possible, and the iron ought never to come into contact with the outside surface of the piqu'e. An old cambric handkerchief is the best thing to use under the iron where absolutely necessary to iron on the right side.

501. To Clear-starch Lace, Cambric and Book Muslin

501.    To Clear-starch Lace, Cambric and Book Muslin. Starch for laces should be thicker and used hotter than for linens. After the laces have been well washed and dried, dip them into the thick hot starch in such a way as to have every part properly starched. Then wring all the starch out of them, spread them out smooth on a piece of linen, roll them up together, and let them remain for about half an hour, when they will be dry enough to iron. Laces should never be clapped between the hands, as it injures them. Cambrics do not require so thick starch as net or lace. Some people prefer cold or raw starch for book-muslin, as some of this kind of muslin has a thick, clammy appearance if starched in boiled starch. Fine laces are sometimes wound round a glass bottle to dry, which prevents them from shrinking.

502. To Fold Clothes after Drying on the Line

502.    To Fold Clothes after Drying on the Line. Fold the fine articles and roll them in a towel, and then fold the rest, turning them all the right side outward. Lay the colored articles separate from the rest. They should not remain damp long, as the colors might bo injured, and starched fabrics are apt to mildew. Sheets and table linen should be shaken and folded.

503. To Iron Clothes

503.    To Iron Clothes. In ironing a shirt, first do the back, then the sleeves, then the collar and bosom, and then the front. Iron calicoes generally on the right side, as they thus keep clean for a longer time. In ironing a frock, first do the waist, then the sleeves, then the skirt. Keep the skirt rolled while ironing the other parts, and set a chair to hold the sleeves while ironing the skirt, unless a skirt-board be used. Silk should be ironed on the wrong side, when quite damp, with an iron which is not very hot, as light colors are apt to change and fade. In ironing velvet, turn up the face of the iron, and after dampening the wrong side of the velvet, draw it over the face of the iron, holding it straight; always iron lace and needlework on the wrong side, and put them away as soon as they are dry.