Linen smoothers and laundry info

[mmcnealy]

A certain person on my f-list just got a custom made linen smoother for Christmas. Needless to say, I want one!

This Painter's glass muller on Ebay looks a lot like a linen smoother, and its significantly cheaper than the Painter's supply stores which want $65 for one. Of course, somewhere in this house I have a large glass blob paperweight that might also work too... Hmm

This website, Old and Interesting has a really interesting write up on linen smoothers, mangle boards and how laundry was done in the old days. Its fun to see the implements that they used to use, now I'll have to go look for them in the artwork.

Its also got lots of links to neat stuff in museums, like this 18th c. crimping board from Wales. Now that I could see some period usage for. Perhaps as a way to put ruffles into caps? or on veil edges?

Comments

[serenalyons.livejournal.com]

Dammit, now I can't use the excuse that they didn't have irons to not iron my linen. *sigh* My lazy gene so liked that on the days I was rushed.

[dame-eleanor.livejournal.com]

Heh! Nope, I'm afraid you can't. There's also portrait evidence of beautiful "pressed" linen being worn, so the rumpled look is prolly a no-go, even for early peiord. :)

The Scandanavians had, and still use a linen smoother that looks something like a miniature snow ski with a long handle on top. It is skated over the linen, which creates friction, and thereby presses and smooths it. Don't know off-hand exactly how old that process is, but it *could* go back to very early times.

[dame-eleanor.livejournal.com]

Love the glass muller, but wouldn't it be a little on the small side for a linen smoother? Wouldn't 40mm be something around 1-1/2-inches?

[pinkleader.livejournal.com]

Talk to http://mselspet.livejournal.com (Mistress Elspet Byndelase) about linen smoothers. She did some research as she's made a few with glassblowing. She is awesome and I'm sure would love to talk about them. I can give you her email address if you need.

[rectangularcat]

I am the lucky recipient of the linen smoother, do you mind if I pass on this info to my friend Vicountess Gemma justgemma17 who made the smoother for me? I am sure she would love to connect to another glass greek who is in the SCA! If you could give me her e-mail address that would be very appreciated.

[mselspet.livejournal.com]

Elspet here....Pinkleader sent me this thread.
I would love to geek historical glass with Vicountess Gemma. My email is elspet at gmail dot com

As to linen smoothers. The information on them seems pretty slim, some extant items identified as linen smoothers or mullers in various collections. I haven't found any solid evidence indicating how they were used. There are some 18th- 20th century darning eggs that are suspiciously similar in shape:-) I did do some experiments on linen with the ones I made. They seemed to work best cold on dry linen, which surprised me. After treatment the fabric surface looked almost polished. I can't imagine using one on an entire garment but for a veil or cuff it seemed plausible.

[rectangularcat]

The ebay Muller is made of borosilicate glass which has a much lower coefficient of heat expansion than normal glass. As that kind of glass was introduced in 1915, I don't think it would work for "period" experimentation. The Sinopia Muller does not specify the type of glass, it may be worth looking into.

What I need to figure out is how to heat it evenly and not have it break - since the handle has much less mass. I am thinking a pot of boiling water and using a rag to handle it. I know that I can't get an even heat from fire embers as demonstrated with my cloche experiments.

Glad to have inspired you!