Buying Household Linen

"Good beginnings ensure good endings" an old Roman belief that is especially true of household linens, for the future life and usefulness of a piece depend upon its past, And the housekeeper who goes forth to replenish her supply must, like Janus, look back and forward before making her purchase.

Household linen is a general name, applied to bed linen as well as to towels and napery. Although nowadays few linen-closets in this country are stored with sheets and pillow-cases of real linen, as they formerly were when the bleaching, spinning and weaving of flax were done at home. Real linen bedding is too dear for most household purses. With the invention of power spinning and weaving one should, of course, be able to buy a good quality for little money. But our demand far outreaches the supply that this country can furnish, and after the transportation and duty are paid on an imported product its price has reached a mark that compels most housewives to limit their purchase. So that is why we now sleep between cotton sheets and on cotton pillow-cases instead of linen ones that are so pleasantly cool in hot weather.

To deal with cotton first. Some shoppers maintain that English sheeting is superior to our own manufacture, giving "hurry," that usual explanation for any inferiority in American manufactured products, as the reason for this difference. However, old brand names of home manufacture should be recognized as guarantees of good material. And reliable retail dealers can be depended upon to carry both the made bedding and sheeting by the yard from only old-established mills. As for adulteration, the cotton itself is as cheap as any adulterant would be. Of course there are different grades of cloth, depending not only on the quality of the cotton that went into the spinning, but also upon the number of threads to the inch in the weave. Here again it is safe to accept the word of a reliable retailer. When buying cotton household linens the shopper usually gets what she pays for.

It is the past of household linens made from flax that must be carefully investigated. Of course, the word of a reliable firm may still be accepted as a guarantee for quality, but there are many kinds of linen, and each kind fills some place in the household supply better than any other. The successful shopper asks for the right kind to meet each of her needs and is also a judge of quality.

Most of the countries of Europe contribute to the linen-market, and each has its characteristics, due to the soil and climate in which the flax was grown, or to its manufacture, and often to all three. Russia's product is chiefly a harsh, coarse-textured stuff, rather loosely wovenmore suitable for decorative than utilitarian purposes in house-furnishing. Germany makes a good strong weave out of a coarse-spun flax. This is a perfectly dependable product, but lacks brilliancy both in design and in texture. German table linen is usually half bleached. In fact, so much of it is, that the two terms are synonymous in our shops. Scotch linen is also coarse and less bleached than the German product. It must be understood that the linen-fabric output of these countries is not limited to that type of goods. In each there are mills in which fine linen stuffs are woven, but the great bulk is of the kind described and characterizes the output of the country. This partly bleached damask does in time become white and will outwear the white that is chemically bleached in the factory. To hasten the home bleaching process it may be dipped in a solution of Javelle water every time it is laundered. The recipe for Javelle water is as follows:

• 1 pound of washing-soda dissolved in 1 quart of boiling water.
• ½ pound of chloride of lime dissolved in 2 quarts of cold water.

Pour the clear liquid from the chloride-of-lime solution into the dissolved soda. Let the mixture settle and then pour the clear liquid into bottles, cork and keep in a dark place. This will make enough for many bleachings, since very little at a time should be used, not more than one part Javelle water to twenty parts water. The linen must be thoroughly rinsed so that not a trace of the solution remains, and then hung in the sun to dry.

France and Austria (the latter often sold under the name of Moravian linen) lead the world in fine workmanship and beauty of design. When buying the cloth and napkins for very best, ask the shopkeeper to show you the finest damask of French manufacture. Even though one is not always able to purchase that kind, it is a real treat to see and feel fabrics of such excellence, and, too, it gives one a standard both in design and in quality for judging other pieces. The French damask is closely woven, that is, many threads to the inch, out of the finest spun, long-fibered flax. In the preparation of flax for spinning it is carded and recarded a number of times. The fibers that remain after the last carding are the longest and most even, and it is these that go into the finest linens, giving a smooth, glossy surface and a firm but thin texture. And being smooth and firm, the better grades of damask are rarely starched.

Beware of linen containing much sizing. It is usually put in to give a loose-weave body or to smooth a surface that would otherwise be rough and knotted because of the short-fibered, uneven flax from which the cloth is woven. After the first laundering such a fabric will look sadly different. It is difficult to judge the quality of a much-stiffened linen without washing it, and samples are cut not large enough to help much after they are washed. However, one fairly sure way of finding uneven places is to hold the linen up to a strong light. If it is woven of short cardings there will be a generous sprinkling of small, opaque streaks throughout that will in time wear rough and fuzzy, or there may be thin threads running the whole length of the fabric. If the thin place appears to be local, but covers more than the width of a thread, it is probably due to a bleaching reagent. But one can never be sure even though these telltale marks are not to be seen, and the safest way is to refuse a much-sized table damask or toweling.

Ireland still leads in all-around linen excellence, chiefly because the moist Irish climate is peculiarly adapted to the growing and outdoor bleaching of flax. Of course, the Irish manufacturer, in order to compete with other countries, is compelled to use modern chemical methods for quick-bleaching his product, as well as the longer meadow-bleach process. But he has the "greens" and by paying a little more one can still procure linen that was whitened on them - "old bleach", as it is known commercially. Perhaps the entire bleaching is not done on the "greens" One might really be forgiven for doubting it, as that way takes from eight to ten weeks. However, the longer life of old-bleach linen makes the difference in price worth while, especially for towels that get rough and frequent laundering.

Like the best table linen, the best toweling is not sized. Choice old-bleach towels have a "beetled" surface finish. This means that the cloth was mechanically beaten with wooden hammers as it passed around a series of rollers until it has the smooth, glossy surface and soft texture that distinguishes it.

There are three weaves of toweling: huckaback with a small twist or "huck" thrown up in the weave to give it a slightly rough friction surface; diapered weavea linen with a small diamond or "bird's eye" pattern over its surface, smoother than a huck towel, but not so smooth as damask, the third type of towel weave. This last kind is not so popular as it was years ago when fringes decorated towel ends. Both are unpractical, and were popular only for a fad period. But for him who likes a soft, rather "slippery" towel, damask will meet the requirement. Double damask, made of a hard-twist thread, wears better. It is usually found among the Irish linens.

Unless one intends to finish the towel ends with one of the many attractive needlework edges, it hardly pays to buy toweling and hem the ends. To be sure, for the same amount of money a better quality of linen can be bought by the yard than in a made towel. And so it remains for the individual to decide which is worth more, quality gained or effort and time saved. The made towels come with both hemstitched and scalloped ends. The latter develops rough edges after several launderings and a machine-embroidered scallop is never quite up to what it imitates, so on the whole a scalloped towel is not the best choice.

Now as to size. The old 27-by-45-inch towel has been abandoned for the more practical 24-by-42-inch size. Guest towels are about 15 by 24 inches. Even the Turkish towel has diminished from the enormous old-time kind to thirty inches by fifty inches or thereabouts.

A good way to judge the quality of a Turkish towel is by the border. A firm, close-woven border means that quality throughout the towel A long, loose loop will pull out after a few launderings. With this kind of toweling, as with sheets, the English make has the name for superiority. It is true the English towel is softer, but is that so desirable for a friction towel? French "Turkish" towels (which means Egyptian cotton) are even softer and entirely defeat their purpose. There is no reason why a home-manufactured towel of this type made from home-grown cotton should not be satisfactory. A medium quality costs about fifty cents.

Union cloth, a mixture of linen and cotton, might deceive the shopper, though a reputable firm will never label it linen or put linen prices on it. However, if the "all linen" claim of a piece of material is doubted, this test may be applied to a sample. Wash the sample free of any dressing, and, when dry, fringe it to expose both warp and weft threads. Then immerse it in sulphuric acid. The cotton will be destroyed in about half a minute, but the linen will last two minutes or longer. A 50 per-cent solution of caustic potash will also give a linen test. Immerse the doubtful sample. The cotton in it will turn light brown and the linen a dark brown. And who has not seen some other woman at the linen-counter "telling" linen by the old-fashioned waywetting it? Real linen is supposed to absorb the-moisture more rapidly than it would if there were cotton in it. The difficulty with this test is that any dressing, in the fabric spoils its reliability and a piece of union linen never leaves the factory without dressing. Shoddy, or refuse, linen and short cardings, of course, will give the linen test and still be a more undesirable purchase than a cotton mixture. The former wears evenly, but the latter develops a loose texture and fuzzy surface as the short ends and weak threads give way in the laundering. However, this kind of linen is always sold well starched and so should never deceive the shopper who knows what that means. The five things that it is claimed the thrifty Holland housewife must know before she will make any purchase are well worth while to know about linen before buying. They are:

1. The place and manner of its manufacture.
2. Its relative quality.
3. How to detect possible flaws or adulteration.
4. Whether it is an imitation.
5. The possible advantages there may be in a higher-priced piece.

January is the linen month. It is then that the retail merchant concentrates his attention on that stock and makes his annual bewildering array of damasks at such tempting prices. Although convention limits the form of linen service in good usage, the variety of design within that limit is legion. But the woman with a nice sense of harmony and exacting tastes keeps her dining-room furniture and her china in mind when buying her table linen, so that her choice will accord with the latter in costliness and type of design. For the dining-room in fine Sheraton, Hepplewhite or Adam style, there are damasks with delicately patterned borders and restrained satin stripes, leaving the larger and somewhat heavier floral designs for the dining-room showing Chippendale influence or in earlier English style. Among the oldest Irish patterns is one showing satiny pheasants and other game birds with startling naturalness. But, fortunately, American taste in table linen does not lean that way, and the foreign damask flaunting gamey or fishy designs never became popular. Perhaps those cloths were originally woven for the long refrec-tory tables that stood in the oak-paneled halls and were used only for the service that followed a hunt.

From breakfast-cloth and small napery through luncheon with its doilies or runner there is a wide latitude for personal choice. To the formal dinner, however, good usage still decrees nothing but fine satin damask or the deep, lace-bordered cloth. The latter is more often used on a round table, the fall of the lace coming its full width from the edge. It is only the luncheon-cloth that shows the pattern of its lace border over the polished surface.

Nothing but finest china and plain crystal should be used on an elaborate cloth. Overdressing the dining-table with heavy silver and cut glass has given place to a simplicity where even the floral decoration is limited. In one of the New York shops, that displays its wares in a suggestive way, a tall urn-shaped compote of Venetian glass graced the center of a table covered with a lace-bordered cloth. The glass, slightly tinged with yellow, was banded by a narrow black rim and had two small black handles. It held three sprays of wild orchids the dark-spotted, yellow kind that one finds in the spring woods. Goblets at each cover carried the color note around the table.

An unusual luncheon-cloth, made by Russian peasants, had a dull raspberry-red linen center, and around it a fifteen-inch-wide band of white. Russian linen is never real white, but ivory. The texture of this piece was slightly rough and loose. Two rows of Italian hemstitching (the directions are given in the next chapter) close together decorated and concealed the joining of border and center. The border was marked off into squares by double rows of the hemstitching done with red linen floss, and in every other square primitive flower forms were darned in two shades of dull red and just a touch of dullest yellow. The yellow, laid close and couched down, made the flower centers. All of the forms were outlined in fine chain-stitch. An ivory-toned Italian ware (not china) was dispayed on this cloth. The rather large cups had short standards. And there were also low covered bowls decorated with curious little raised form-groups all in the one ivory tone.

The many little doilies that formerly spotted a luncheon-table have now on the best-furnished tables been merged into one large place cloth, usually oblong and measuring fifteen inches wide and eighteen inches long. This is the largest size. With these may be used a runner of the same linen, or two runners, one across the table near each end if it is long. To be sure, on a round table the round doilies are in better harmony, and if not more than three are used for each cover, with a single large centerpiece, the effect should be satisfactory. In the following chapters are suggestions for materials and ways of finishing these. Attractive sets can be made as pick-up work, costing little in time, effort, and money.

Continue: Mark Linen.