Good afternoon, MuseumLers – But do please be aware that washing/rinsing the
fabrics has some limitations that you must take in to account. First, your
water quality must be excellent (ideally deionized) so different
minerals/contaminants are not left behind in the fabric. My rule of thumb:
if you don’t drink the water yourself and/or the bathroom/kitchen fixtures
are stained from the water, you can’t use that water for rinsing. You need
to use a washing machine that has been stripped of any/all detergent and
fabric softener residue. You need either a clothesline that can handle the
yardage you will be using and/or a clothes dryer that has never had fabric
softener used in it. I always recommend that case dressing fabrics be rinsed
in order to remove/reduce the amount of finish present, check to see if the
colourant is fast (I throw in a piece of cotton muslin in with the yardage)
and won’t bleed/crock, and to allow shrinkage/physical dimensional stability
to be achieved.


…i am a big fan of denver fabrics, the price and quality are excellent and
you can get swatches for a penny. If you worry about chemicals, they can
always be washed before use. ….

….  Does anyone have suggestions of other manufacturers or vendors? …

And there are some fibres and dyes that should not be used in conjunction
with certain types of artifacts – no amount of rinsing/washing will make a
wool-containing fabric ‘safe’ enough to use with silver-containing artifacts
for example. There are some dyes that contain sulfur and therefore should
not be used with silver-containing artifacts as well. Ideally, you would be
conducting Oddy tests on any fabric under consideration for use in a
closed-environment such as a tightly sealed exhibition case.

When you add in this amount of hassle and the limitations, it is easy to see
that buying case dressing fabrics from vendors who do Oddy testing (like
Bench Mark <www.benchmarkcatalog.com> ) or use undyed/unfinished (PDF)
fabrics like those available from Testfabrics, Inc. (www.testfabrics.com)
is actually more affordable in the long run (i.e. putting in a washer/dryer
set-up; running a clothline, etc).

Regards,

Margaret Geiss-Mooney

Textile/Costume Conservator

Professional Associate, AIC

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