The Tea Towel Company - Product Care

Product Care The Tea Towel Company - Product Care

By following the product care instructions for the products, you both keep the textiles looking good longer and minimize the detrimental effects on the environment.

Wash temperature
The product care label shows that the textiles can be washed at 40°C or less on a gentle cycle. However, you can wash them at 60°C if necessary. Use an energy-saving washing programme.

Use an environmentally friendly detergent and dose it correctly. New detergents can wash effectively right down to 20°C. Remember to sort the textiles by colour for washing. Do not use chlorine bleach. Avoid the use of fabric softener.

Tumbledrying
The product care label shows that you should not tumble dry the textiles (which is a good thing because tumble drying uses a lot of energy). Let them line-dry. Spinning the textiles well before taking them out of the washing machine reduces the drying time. If you decide to tumbledry them, do so at moderate heat.

Iron with low heat
The product label indicates that you can iron the textiles, steam or dry, with low heat. Higher heat can be used if necessary, but iron on the reverse side of the fabric. It's a good idea to iron cotton before it's 100% dry.

Avoid dry cleaning
The textiles can be dry cleaned in any type of solvent normally used in dry cleaning processes except trichloroethylene. However, dry cleaning has a negative impact on the environment because the organic solvents used are released into nature.

How to Remove Stains
You can remove most stains, or at least greatly minimise them, if you deal with them right away. You can find lots of great tips on stain removal on the internet. Here are a few I've found for very common stains that make use of cold water, vinegar and and salt, which are all compatible with cotton:

Red wine: Covering the stain with lots of salt helps to absorb the wine and keep the stain from setting. You can put on as much salt as you like until the red wine is no longer being absorbed. You can also leave the stain with the salt on top overnight and then hoover the salt up the next day. In most cases, the stain will be gone.

Coffee: You can use household white vinegar to remove coffee stains. Make a solution that is 50% water and 50% vinegar. Blot the mixture onto the stain with a clean, dry cloth. Use another clean, dry cloth to blot the stain and the vinegar back up. You do not have to rinse out the vinegar unless you want to. Dry completely and the coffee stain is hopefully gone.

Tea: Sprinkle salt on the stain and rub with a soft cloth moistened with water. The salt is gently abrasive as it dissolves, therefore be sure to rub with the grain to avoid any accidental rubbing marks. If any of the stain remains, mix equal amounts of white vinegar and salt and apply to the stain. Rub the stained part of the fabric between your fingers. Rinse well.

Candle wax: Try to deal with the stain as quickly as possible. Warm and soft wax comes off much easier than wax that has set. Use a blunt knife or something similar to scrape off as much of the wax as you can. Place paper towels over the stain area and use a warm (not hot) iron on top of them. The warmed and softened wax will absorb into the paper towels. Do not use a warm iron on coloured waxes. Only use the scraping method for those. Once you get as much of the stain out as you can, wash the fabric according to the washing instructions.