Linen Surprise

Last spring, yes, about exactly a year ago, I bought myself two linen skirts. No, they weren't cheap, even though they were "two for the price of one."

One's white and one's a "straw color." They're sort of big and loose, not at all tailored or fitted. OK, more like tents to hide under.

Well, one, the straw-colored, always looked wrinkled. I was told that it "just needed ironing." Well, that didn't work. So I sent it to the cleaner, and it quickly frizzed up again, like difficult curley hair on a humid day.

I've been wearing it a lot, and it really was looking awful, dirty and wrinkled. It certainly doesn't look like the expensive skirt it actually is. I didn't want to wait for my husband's next trip to the dry cleaners, so I tried reading the "washing instructions." I saw one of those "handwash" logos.

I don't wash anything "by hand" any more, so I decided to try asking on the internet. At the first site I found, it very reasuringly insisted that since people have been wearing linen long before there was dry cleaning, it must be possible to safely launder it. Apparently proper laundering softens the linen so it won't be wrinkled.

It suggested a gentle cycle with gentle soap, even shampoo. So, this morning I put the skirt and some other things in the machine with baby shampoo. It's now drying out on the merpeset, balcony, and looks less wrinkled than usual. They claim that it can also be dried in the dryer or you can lay it flat on the grass or any surface.

I'll stick with the clothes line.

Now I wonder what else I should be washing in the machine.