What she said. Both times. Rayon drapes beautifully, will take dyes like a dream, has a wonderful soft hand…and it will also wrinkle if you look at it, it is fragile, and most of the time it will shrink if you launder it at home, even if you hand wash it in cold water with the very gentlest soap available and carefully lay it flat to dry. In other words, if you want to design clothing, rayon will make something that looks gorgeous on the rack. If you want to actually wear the clothing, rayon is a pain in the ass to maintain, unless you have a staff who will do it for you. I avoid rayon at all costs now.
Back in the old days, I kept many a stocking run from running further by using some nail polish. Even if the hole is visible, a small hole that’s been stopped with a dab of nail polish is less obvious than a ladder that runs the entire length of the leg.
Do you apply the clear nail polish to your hose while you are wearing them?
Doesn’t this cause the hose to stick to your leg?
Or do you take them off to apply it, which would cause one side to stick to the other?
Sorry, I’m having a hard time picturing this.
I read somewhere that mixing a cup of baking powder with a cup of salt and flushing with a pot of boiling water was the “natural” way to keep your drains clean and prevent clogging.
I tried it and ended up have to use four bottles of drain cleaner to remove the clog formed by the baking soda and salt.
(Caution: If you must do this, use protective eyewear, gloves, and clothes. Better yet, don’t do it at all.)
Thanks for your answers Moonlitherial and Lynn Bodoni (and anyone else who has answered since I started typing).
Buy green cleaning agents! They work just as good as the chemical stuff and they’re good for the environment!
When we bought a new house my wife bought some sort of ‘natural’ toilet bowl cleaner. I used that stuff for 6 months straight and while it may have kept the bowl sanitized it never got rid of the dark water ring in the bowl or the dingy gray and rust/lime that our local water left no matter how hard I scrubbed. I pretty much gave up and thought we would have to live with an ugly toilet due to our crappy water.
When the ‘green’ stuff ran out I bought some The Works brand probably highly toxic stuff. The porcelin looked like it was brand new and even had a shine to it.
Sorry, but a lot of those green cleaners are crap.
Baking soda AND VINEGAR is a good way to flush your drains. Not sure where you got salt from … although salt + lemon juice helps with rust stains. (True!)
Humm - well I’m not sure about the wash and tumble dry bit, but I have rayon items as well and have never had any particular angst caring for them, despite my lack of staff. (Well, I do have my son, but I’m not sure a 2 year old can really be counted in that sense unless his duties are tormenting the dog and turding in his pants. )
Even the aforementioned shirt - I managed to slob a bit of tomato seed on it first thing in the morning (curse you delicious egg white and tomato omelet!) and a quick dab of water took it right out, dried within a few minutes and left no discernible mark - cotton tends to not be quite so forgiving (the mark will eventually come out, but you’ll probably have a wet spot on your boob for the bulk of the morning, and then it will dry just a slightly different shade.)
So anyway, the blouse is delightful. The ‘steaming in the bathroom’ trick didn’t work worth a shit.
Fabrics have come a tremendous way in the last 20 years. At one time, rayon was just horrible to care for, but a lot of contemporary rayons, and especially rayon blends, are pretty sturdy.
I say this as a person with a very Darwinian view of clothing; I don’t pay much for any piece, always second hand, and then let the laundry gods decide what lives or dies. I have to really like something to have it dry-cleaned.
I carry a small bottle if I have my hair done and am going out. Which, coincidentally, is also the only time I would be wearing pantyhose.
(Now that I think about it, I don’t think I have worn hose since 6 years ago at my cousin’s wedding. I only did it then to humour my mother who thought that you should at least wear hose in church.)
Not I. The closest to cosmetical stuff in my purse would be a comb, a small bottle of hand lotion, and some chapstick. I don’t think I’ve used hair spray since I left high school in 1972.
It was one of those substitution thingies. Yanno, “if you have no cake flour, use AP flour with one tablespoon of cornstarch,” or “if you have no baking chocolate, use cocoa and two tablespoons of butter.”
Those hints work. The one that was completely, TOTALLY whack was:
“If you have no whipped cream, substitute beaten egg whites mixed with mashed banana.”
I hear that a mixture of ammonia and bleach works wonders when you’re cleaning. Every time I try it, I wake up on the floor in a stupor and don’t remember what happened.
Back in the old days, before we could buy fireplace matches and those longhandled cigarette lighters for fireplaces and candles in holders, one hint was to light a piece of uncooked spaghetti and use that to light the fire. That never worked for me. I usually just made a paper spill (twisted piece of waste paper) and used that.