Home Science: Class 11 (Book 2) — Chapter 11: Care and Maintenance of Fabrics

Care and maintenance of fabric products (clothing, furnishing, household textiles) are essential to retain their appearance, quality, and functionality throughout their expected life.

• Care and Maintenance: Includes keeping materials free of physical damage and retaining their original appearance.
• Appearance Retention: Involves removing stains and dirt without color damage, refurbishing brightness/texture (softness, stiffness, crispness), and keeping fabrics wrinkle-free or properly creased.

Mending is the general term for keeping materials free of damage occurring during normal use or accidents. It must be completed before laundering to prevent further damage from washing strains.

• Repairing cuts, tears, and holes: Prevents unraveling and enlargement of damaged areas.
• Replacing attachments: Securing loose buttons, fasteners, ribbons, laces, or fancy trims.
• Restitching seams and hems: Repairing open seams and loose hems before they unravel completely.

Laundering involves a sequence of steps: stain removal, preparation of fabrics, dirt removal by washing, finishing (blueing and starching), and pressing/ironing for storage or use.

A stain is an unwanted mark or coloration on a fabric caused by contact and absorption of foreign matter, which cannot be removed by normal washing and requires special treatment.

• Vegetable stains: Tea, coffee, fruits, and vegetables; acidic in nature; removed using alkaline mediums.
• Animal stains: Blood, milk, meat, eggs; protein-based; removed using detergents in cold water (hot water coagulates proteins).
• Oil stains: Oils, ghee, butter; removed using grease solvents and absorbents.
• Mineral stains: Ink, rust, coal tar, medicines; washed first in acidic medium, then alkaline medium.
• Dye bleeding: Color transfer from other fabrics; removed using dilute alkalies or acids depending on fabric type.

• Stains are best removed when fresh.
• Identify the stain and use the correct chemical procedure.
• For unknown stains, start with simple processes (cold water, mild soap) and move to complex chemical treatments.
• Repeated use of milder reagents is safer than a single application of a strong agent.
• Always wash fabrics with a soapy solution after stain removal to eliminate chemical traces.
• Dry fabrics in the sun; sunlight acts as a natural bleach.
• Test chemicals on an inconspicuous portion of delicate fabrics first.

• Scraping: Lightly scraping built-up surface stains using a blunt knife.
• Dipping: Submerging the stained material directly into the reagent and scrubbing.
• Sponging: Placing the stained area on a flat surface with blotting paper underneath, applying reagent with a sponge.
• Drop Method: Stretching the stained cloth over a bowl and applying the reagent with a dropper.

• Grease solvents: Turpentine, kerosene, white petrol, methylated spirit, acetone, carbon tetrachloride.
• Grease absorbents: Bran, Fuller’s earth, talcum powder, starch, French chalk.
• Emulsifiers: Soaps, detergents.
• Acidic reagents: Acetic acid (vinegar), oxalic acid, lemon, tomato, sour milk, curds.
• Alkaline reagents: Ammonia, borax, baking soda.
• Oxidising bleaches: Sunlight, sodium hypochlorite (javelle water), sodium perborate, hydrogen peroxide.
• Reducing bleaches: Sodium hydrosulphite, sodium bisulphate, sodium thiosulphate.

Dirt is grease, grime, and dust jammed between fabric structures. It is classified into loose dirt (easily brushed or shaken off) and tightly held dirt (held by sweat and grease).

• Dry cleaning: Cleaning using solvents or absorbents instead of water to prevent fiber swelling.
• Wet cleaning (Washing): Done in water with soaps/detergents that emulsify grease into tiny particles.
• Water: The primary laundry agent. Water penetration causes wetting. Pedesis (the kinetic movement of water particles) helps dislodge non-greasy dirt. Heating water increases pedesis and penetration.
• Redeposition: Water alone cannot keep dirt suspended, leading to redeposition on fabrics, which causes gradual graying over repeated washes.

Both soaps and detergents are surfactants (surface-active agents) that reduce the surface tension of water, allowing it to wet fabrics faster and keep dirt suspended in wash water.

• Soap: Produced by reacting natural oils/fats with alkali. Biodegradable and eco-friendly, but ineffective in hard water (forms scum/wastage) and loses cleaning power over time.
• Synthetic Detergents: Synthesized from chemicals. Highly effective in both soft and hard water, highly concentrated, and can be engineered for specific washing machines and tasks.

1. Friction washing: Suitable for strong fabrics like cotton. Involves rubbing fabric against itself, using a brush, or a scrubbing board. Never use on delicate fabrics (silk, wool, embroidery).
2. Kneading and squeezing: Gentle hand-rubbing in soap solution. Low pressure preserves texture, color, and weave. Ideal for wool, silk, rayon, and colored fabrics. Ineffective for heavily soiled items.
3. Suction washing: Used for heavy/bulky articles like towels and blankets. A suction washer is pressed down and lifted repeatedly in a tub of soapy water, creating a vacuum that pulls dirt out.
4. Machine washing: Labor-saving method using mechanical agitation to loosen dirt. Pressure is provided by a moving tub or central agitator. Available as manual, semi-automatic, or fully automatic.

• Blues and Optical Brighteners: Used to counteract the yellowing of white cottons. Ultramarine blue (powdered pigment) must be mixed thoroughly to avoid patchy results. Liquid blues offer even application. Optical Brightening Agents (OBAs) are weak fluorescent dyes that absorb ultraviolet light and re-emit it as blue-white light, counteracting both yellowness and grayness.
• Starches and Stiffening Agents: Restore body, gloss, and crispness to fabrics, making subsequent washing easier as dirt clings to the starch rather than the fiber.
  • Starch: Derived from wheat (maida), rice, arrowroot, or tapioca. Used exclusively for cotton and linen. Requires cooking before application.
  • Gum Acacia (Gum Arabic): Natural gum from the babool tree. Dissolved overnight and sieved. Provides light stiffening/crispness; used for silks, fine cottons, rayons, and blends.
  • Gelatin: Easy to use but expensive; used for delicate fabrics.
  • Borax: Melts during ironing to form a thin, water-repellent film, maintaining crispness in humid climates.

• White cottons/linens should be dried outside in direct sunlight (acts as an antiseptic and natural bleach).
• Delicate fabrics (silk, wool) and synthetics must be dried indoors or in shade; direct sunlight damages fibers, reduces strength, and causes irreversible yellowing.

Good ironing requires three elements: high temperature, moisture, and pressure.

• Temperature Control: Different fibers have different thermal limits. Electric irons with thermostats are preferred over charcoal irons, which cannot regulate heat and may stain clothes.
• Moisture: Best achieved by ironing clothes while damp, or by spraying water evenly.
• Pressing vs. Ironing: Ironing involves sliding the iron along the fabric length. Pressing involves lifting and placing the hot iron flat on one spot without sliding; essential for laces, pleats, creases, and hems to prevent stretching.

Dry-cleaning is the cleaning of fabrics in a non-aqueous liquid medium. Unlike water, dry solvents do not cause fiber swelling, preventing shrinkage, wrinkles, and color bleeding in delicate textiles.

• Solvents used: Perchloro-ethylene, petroleum solvents, or fluorocarbon solvents.
• Process: Industrial-scale inspection, spot-board treatment for water-soluble stains, solvent washing, and finishing (moth-proofing, water-repellency, sizing).

Proper storage protects seasonal clothing from dust, moisture, and pests.

• All clothes must be clean, completely dry, and mended before storage.
• Woolens must be brushed, dry-cleaned, and stored with naphthalene balls to prevent moth damage.
• Pockets must be turned inside out, and sleeves/trousers turned up to remove dust and grit.
• Pack clothes loosely in clean, dry, insect-free cupboards or trunks to avoid permanent crease setting.
• Maintain a low-humidity atmosphere to prevent mildew and fungal growth.

• Yarn Structure: High-twist yarns shrink more. Novelty/complex yarns catch, snag, or abrade easily. Blended yarns (e.g., polyester-cotton) require care matching the most sensitive fiber (e.g., avoiding hot water to prevent polyester shrinkage).
• Fabric Construction: Simple, closely woven fabrics are easiest to maintain. Fancy weaves (satin, pile, long floats) snag easily. Knitted fabrics stretch out of shape and require re-blocking. Sheer fabrics, laces, nets, felts, and non-wovens require highly delicate handling.
• Colour and Finishes: Dyed/printed fabrics may bleed and stain other garments. Finishes (like starching or sizing) may require renewal after every wash.

A care label is a permanent tag containing regular care information and instructions, securely attached to remain legible throughout the useful life of the garment.