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What
you need:
A shower.
A soft brush.
A coat hanger.
A hand towel.
A small curtain rod.
Your item of clothing.
Patience. Lots of patience.
The garment I am cleaning
today is pure silk with a gold metal thread border and real
pearls and garnets set into the hem. It looks quite hopeless,
but the end result was 100% successful. I have been able
to use this method for wool and plain silk. I've not tried
linen, but I will post up if I do with whether or not this
method worked. If you linen or wool is stained and dry,
I use Sard's Wonder Soap as a second wash down AFTER I do
a first clean up with just water.
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Step
1
Try not to be hysterical
about your surcote or kirtle. Remember, once it looks like
this, the mud coating underneath will stop it snagging on
gravel or pine chips.
Make yourself a beverage.
Make it a double if you need to.
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Step
2
Assess the mud. If
any can be shaken or picked off, do it now.
Bending the hem will
crack off any large chunks of mud
DO NOT use a brush
at this stage, as you might rub the mud more into the fabric
instead of brushing it off.
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Step 3
Keep going.
Check the whole thing.
Remind yourself that
re-enacting is a hobby that you do for fun and friendship
and that you don't want to quit just because everything
you wore the event looks like this.
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Step 4
Check the underneath.
Step 5
Cry a little if it
helps.
If you didn't get a
drink earlier, now's a good time. Do some deep breathing.
You are ready to start.
Take your shoes off.
I hope you're wearing old clothes so you don't get mud all
over yourself. Goggles are good if you want to keep water
out of your eyes because you are getting right into the
shower with you garment and you're going to get very drippy.
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Step 6
Wrap the hand towel
around the coathanger to pad out the shoulders. Your germent
will be very heavy when it's complately wet, and you don't
want to put too much stress on the shoulders.
Padding it spreads
the weight a little.
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Step 7
Put your garment on
the hanger.
You are ready to begin
the messy part now.
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Step 8
Place a bar or small
curtain rod across the shower to hang the coat hanger on.
A mop or broom will do.
If you can't rig something
up, you'll need a metal clothes rack, but they aren't often
tall enough, so if you can get something up high, that's
preferable.
I don't recommend using
the shower head as it will be dragged down with the weight
of your expectations and the wet fabric
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Step 9
Put the surcote or
kirtle inside the shower cubicle and turn the shower on
wetting it from top to bottom.
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Step 10
Let the water run from
the top to the bottom. This is better than just soaking
the bottom which encourages the mud to rise. This way, the
water brings the mud downwards.
This is a slow process
and very water intensive.
Some of the mud will
start to dissolve and rinse off, but a lot of the crusty,
congealed stuff won't, of course.
This photo is deceptively
clean-ish looking as everything is wet, so the water marks
and mud lines are far less obvious. I also needed to get
on with cleaning and not stop and take photos as the water
was running.
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Step 11
With the soft brush
GENTLY move in a circular motion getting around the stones
or decorative stitching or trim you may have.
Start higher than the
mud and water lines, so you don't create a clean line of
your own. It's normal for a little dte to come out, so I
start right at the top so this will be even.
This will take ages
if you are being gentle.
You'll need to go over
the same areas a number of times the lower you go and the
closer you get to the worst affected areas at the bottom.
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Step 12
Work downwards while
the water is running and the mud will flow downwards. Move
the surcote around under the water. The water flowing down
will help erase the water marks and prevent rising mud or
soaking in muddy water.
Step 13
Give it another gentle
brushing. Use circles to release the mud from the fabric.
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Step 14
Keep going and rinsing
as you go.
Take it slowly and
very gently.
More mud will come
off each time you return to the worst bits. This looks okay
in this photo, but up close there was still quite a bit
of mud on the bezants and in the hem around the gemstones
and pearls.
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Step 15
Don't forget the inside...
brush downwards in
light circles.
Make sure the fabric
is really wet first.
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Step 16
Rinse rinse rinse!
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Step 17
Check for missed spots.
Go back if you need
to.
When you're happy with
how it looks, turn the tap off and let it drain for a minute.
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Step 18
Take the surcote out
of the shower and sit in a sink to catch drips.
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Step 19
Clean out the shower
from bits of leftover mud.
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Step 20
Put the surcote back
in to drip dry for a bit.
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Step 21
Once it's stopped most
of the dripping, hang it somewhere where it doesn't touch
the ground and put a towel under it to catch the rest of
the drips.
Assess for bits you
missed.
Start over if you need
to. If it's looking good, things are hopeful! Clean! It's
still wet, so cross your fingers that it's looking okay.
At this point, the
mud "high tide" mark should be gone. If it's not,
you will need to repeat the entire process and add a little
Sard's Wonder Soap to the brushing. Go easy on it, or you'll
end op with the mark where the soap was.
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Step 22
Check it as it dries.
If there's mud you've
missed, put it back in the shower before it dries completely
and repeat until you're back to this bit.
If you need to do this
more than once as you discover spots you've missed, now's
the time to do it rather than allow the fabric to dry completely.
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Step 23
All dry! Clean and
good as new!
Throw yourself a tickertape
parade or failing that, make a nice cup of tea and sit down.
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Before photo
of a silk gown
which I cleaned
successfully
with this method.
Happy cleaning!
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