Monday, October 18, 2010

Lessons in Woolies

Knickers and sweaters
hats and socks, too
we're washing all our woolies
'til they look like new

We're washing woolies,
wooly woolies
We're washing woolies,
wooly woolies

Under shirts and leggings
scarves and mittens, too
we're washing all our woolies
'til they look like new

We're washing woolies,
wooly woolies
We're washing woolies,
wooly woolies


You can hear this song being sung in our house at least once every couple of weeks as the girls and I clean and shave all of our wool items (we wear wool all year round). It's actually one of our favorite 'chores'.

As the weather here is quickly turning from cold to really cold, I decided to pull out our heavier wool items for the girls to wear (along with some of the baby woolies to prepare for our arrival in Feb). I always like to give them a good wash in our sink after they have been stored away for a few months and then hang them to dry in the sun. This time around there was nothing but rain for days so I dried them inside next to our wood stove, which is normally a nice thing...

But this time something went wrong...



I scorched C's wool undershirt!
I guess I didn't realize just how hot Kevin had the fire this time around and I placed the rack too close. Thank goodness nothing else was ruined. *sigh* Boy did I learn my lesson! All I can do is laugh about it now.



She does need her undershirt, though, so now I am contemplating how I can best fix my blunder. Dye it perhaps? What do you think? What would you do with this silly mess up?

Happy Monday everyone!!

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19 comments:

boatbaby said...

Whoops! I don't have any good ideas... Is the fabric still intact? I want to see those baby woolies :) Your Feb baby will be cozy as can be!

Anonymous said...

Oh my. It is always a good sign when I can laugh at my mistakes. I have no ideas, but know that whatever you do it will be aesthetically lovely...as always.

TulsiLeaf said...

Hmmm.

the problem with the wool is that the fibers are actually scorched so dying would still leave a stain, i would imagine.

Can you shave the shirt a bit? That would probably take some of it off.

Tonya Gunn said...

Ah, such a nice ritual - the cleaning of the woolies.
The cool air is truly a welcome change.

Teena said...

What a fun post! Thanks for the laugh!!

Mama Ash Grove said...

OH no!!! This is too bad!
I think if it were me, I'd try dying it- maybe tye-dye, with brown and something else dark? Red or purple?

This is My Life said...

Oh no, no ideas how to fix that, but curious.

Anonymous said...

If you turn the shirt inside out is the stain a bit duller? If so (and if the seams are not itchy) then you could probably dye it to cover the stain and she could wear it inside out.

Carrie said...

No suggestions but I'm glad that nothing else was scorched. Looking at that, I can only help but think what a polyester fleece shirt would have looked like.....

~carrie~

nocton4 said...

oh dear, bless x

KnitterMama said...

Oh No! You now, I don't believe that I would do anything at all! It is just going under her clothes right? :)

Sheila said...

Maybe dye with coffee or tea? At least it will mostly be under her clothes!

Maria said...

I got curious and did a quick search. I found this on eHow:
"Wool is different than other fabrics. When wool is scorched the fabric actually burns leaving less fabric. The best thing you can do is to use a small brush, fine sandpaper, emery paper, or emery board to lightly scrape away the burnt ends. A coin can also be used to scrape away the scorched area. No matter what you use to scrape, be sure it is clean so that it does not replace the scorch mark with another stain.
Another way that used to be a common method, but that is rarely used today is to use chalk. Scrape a piece of chalk into powder. Wet the scorch stain on the wool clothing. Apply the chalk powder to the wet area and lay the garment out in the sun. Repeat when the area dries. This won't remove the burnt fibers but may lighten the appearance of the scorch stain."
Good luck!

Anonymous said...

LOL. Sorry I am laughing. I did the same exact thing to our wool Christmas stocking a few years back. I didn't think it was that close to the wood stove. I am not sure what you can do to salvage it. Maybe turn the sleeves into arm/leg warmers and use the back fabric for another project?

Sara said...

Hee, I've done this to my nighty, while warming up my bum in the morning! It billows out and before you know it a crunchy nighty. Our cat had a bottle brush tail and he would singe his tail all the time.

Anonymous said...

Oh no-hope you find a solution soon.
I do have a request-when you have the time of course.Could you make a post about woolies-how you layer and why?Where you get them?Do you only wash them every couple weeks?

Jessica said...

I was thinking of projects, like livingslowly suggested. I know woolies are spendy but I think this will be hard to salvage any other way.
Hugs to you..I would be both devastated and laughing at myself!

FrontierDreams said...

Thank you all for your help and suggestions. My lovely scorch job is pretty bad - it went all the way through.. eeek! But I plan on trying all of the suggestions listed, cutting it up and re-using it as something else as the last resort. We'll see what happens! And yes, laughing is all I can do to keep me from crying, hee,hee.

Thanks again!!

Anon - I absolutely will do a post on that for you. *fingers crossed* my computer will keep working to do it.

XOXO

Anonymous said...

Oh dear. How unfortunate. Like many before me have said, at least they go beneath the outer clothes. Speaking of which, by the time my children get to 2 or 3 years of age, they complain of the scritchy scratchies. Do yours? What do you do about it? I've tried putting a cotton tshirt underneath the layer of wool, but they still say it bothers them. Hmmm...I think I was like that as a child, too. Anyhow, I'm sorry for your mistake.:)
xo Jules

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