Re: Starched Textiles

[Joanne Hackett <j.hackett@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Clare,
I think it extremely unlikely that you will be able to remove the starch with wet-cleaning alone.  My experience has been that washing cotton textiles with aged starch results in an item cleaner, but stiffer, than you started with.  The starch tends to re-organize itself, so to speak, in wet cleaning.  To remove starch you need to use Alpha Amylase.  So, in your case, a simple wet-cleaning may give you the result you desire - a cleaner textile with starch remaining.
I supervised the wet cleaning of a petticoat from the 1870's using a conventional wet-cleaning system, followed by an Alpha Amylase wet-cleaning.  The treatment, part of a larger treatment of a wedding ensemble, was presented by Amanda Holden, conservation technician at the IMA, at the MRCG meeting in Indianapolis in 2005.  I believe an abstract was published, and may be available by contacting the MRCG sectretary, Richard McCoy rmccoy@xxxxxxxxxx .  Otherwise, contact me directly and I will pass your query along to Amanda who is now in graduate school at NYU.  She may be able to send you a copy of her treatment report and bibliography.

Joanne Hackett
Senior Textile Conservator
Victoria and Albert Museum

>>> clarelewarne@xxxxxxxxx 04/10/2007 19:44 >>>
Hello All,



I am a textile conservation student at the University of Alberta. We have a
number of cotton nurses' uniforms circa 1959 that are to go out on exhibit.
The bibs, caps, collars and cuffs (all flat), are starched and extremely
hard pressed.   Some of them have significant yellowing and we believe that
the starch is in large part to blame.  The curator would like to display the
uniforms as they were originally worn -- that is, white and crisp/starched.



On the one hand we would really like to remove the yellowing, but on the
other the starch is integral to the objects as they would have been worn
heavily starched*



I have combed the conservation literature and have been unable to find
anything about starched textiles. Does anyone have any experience washing
aged, heavily starched textiles?   Will any of the starch remain?  If it is
dried on a glass table will they retain the 'hard pressed' look/hand?



Thanks in advance for your thoughts,



Clare Lewarne



MSc. Candidate, Textiles and Clothing

Department of Human Ecology
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada




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