Fabric clogged with mud

heretolearn_2

Hi

I have something I borrowed from a friend that I now need to return. Trouble is it is pure wool fabric and part of it is thoroughly clogged up with mud, to the extent that it's gone completely stiff. this is not a mud stain so much as the wool now being full of mud. It's been through the wool wash in the machine without making much difference.

Friend did know it was going to get dirty/muddy but I still want to fix it as much as possible.

any ideas?

I've currently got it soaking on cold water to try and soften it up a bit/get some more of the mud out. Because it's wool I'm scared to give it a good scrub or try a hotter wash.

Horseunderwater

In the good old days - my mother said let it dry first then get a rolling pin and roll it over the mud. It will crack off and mostly go away. Then you wash it in cool water a number of times by hand with soap powder (wool sort). Stain might come out - it usually did back in those days, but then we had powders that actaully washed the clothing - not tickled it. Modern wash formulas just do not work. You never thought about washing woolens in a machine. Once rinsed it wash pegged to line dripping to drain of excess water. Then it would be turned upside down and righside up 3-4 times till dry. Not once did a woolie shrink by doing that.

thriftwizard

The felting (i.e. shrinking, wrinkling, thickening) process happens when wool (or just about any animal fibre) is stressed; the little scales on the fibres pop up & lock into position in tangles & snarls, just like your hair on a bad hair day. When I'm making felt by hand, I get the fibre hot, wet & soapy and bash it about a lot, just like the agitation it receives in a washing machine, then rinse in cold & bash some more... although you can make it dry, by repeatedly stabbing it with barbed needles, but that's another story. So that's what you want to avoid - rapid changes of temperature, & agitation.

Horseunderwater's suggestion of letting it dry, then cracking the mud off, is a good one; the other thing I can think of is getting hold of one of the solutions that spinners use to clean fleeces (e.g. PowerScour) when we can't be bothered to leave them in a waterbutt for 6 months, which will dissolve mud (and any grease) very gently, over a few hours. Although my neighbour swears by L!dl's household cleaner for that job - I've never tried it. You can use hot water; you can even boil wool without it shrinking, just make the temperature change gradual, i.e. heat it up slowly, or put it in warm water, then hot, then hotter.

zippychick

might this thread help?

Zip