This time, Millie has bought fleece and linen fabric for her boutique. She wants to create a fashion sensation and attract customers by offering something that is twice as strong as cotton, yet comfortable. She is planning to present a unique collection of linen shirts, suits, and skirts!
While exploring the hustling bustling textile market, Millie learnt of the marvelous properties of fleece and linen. One of the facts almost stunned her. This fabric is made from flax stems, which is a vegetable fiber! So, here we have something organic and close to nature!
Just like cotton, fleece and linen material have the ability to absorb and release perspiration speedily. Thus, your skin feels fresh and cozy inside this fabric. One of the amazing qualities of this fabric, which Millie noticed, is that it's not stretchy. This helps you get a nice fitting. Besides, linen has the tendency to shrink.
It's time for Millie to start her project. Before cutting the fabric, she is going to wash and dry it not one, but three times. This is because this material tends to lose some of its crispness and become soft after washing. If you wish to retain its crispness, go for dry cleaning.
Millie already knows that linen will shrink when pressed. Therefore, what she will do is use a press cloth on the right side of the fabric for pressing and maintain a low temperature at the same time. However, she will have to be very careful while pressing, as it's hard to remove pleats, wrinkles, and folds from fleece and linen materials once they are pressed.
Wanna set neat pleats in your fleece and linen fabric? Use Millie's tactic. She has prepared a solution, which contains water and vinegar in 50:50 ratio. She will use this solution to moist the fold line of the material, so that she gets nice pleats while pressing. One thing to remember here is that you need to let the portion dry thoroughly before you move to another area.
If you still find it difficult to get the perfect pleats, use wooden clapper. It absorbs moisture quickly from the fabric and speeds up drying. Millie can still remember the time when she used such clappers. She was an amateur then and had just opened her boutique. And now, forming pleats and folds has become a part of her life!
Laundering fleece and linen fabric requires special attention too. When Millie will finish making the fleece and linen garment, she will put it to wash and just when the garment is slightly damp, she will remove it from the dryer. After that, she will set in on a hanger, smoothing the fabric with her fingers gently and lovingly, which is her style. There is a reason behind this fine work of fingers - it decreases the quantity of pressing required.
And lastly, here's one more interesting fact about fleece and linen - a pressed and neatly folded linen handkerchief, with prominent corners, was the classic decoration piece of a gentleman's suit during the beginning of the 20th century!
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