Our small textile school

Ekelund's home textiles are developed for you as a private consumer. The goods are not adapted for the public sector such as hotels and restaurants, as there are completely different requirements for the goods to cope with industrial washing. Exceptions have been made successfully to, for example, conference facilities that wash their own textiles.

Indoor use: light durability, the staining is made with reactive colors the same type as for clothes. The light durability is good but not so high that we recommend them for outdoor use. Lying in sunlight in the same place for a long time can bleach the colors even indoors.

Easy care. The goods are wrinkle-free and as a consumer you do not need to put more work into laundry and finishing than for your clothes. Exceptions, hellinne that always has to be mangled to become smooth and for the wonderful shine and luster of the flax to assert itself.

 

Washing temperature 60°C
Copes white washing 85°C

Normal centrifugation
Immediately pick up the cloth

Preparatory drying
Here you can have an impact on the end result a lot. Read more about this later.

Drying / hang drying
Do not dry product to much - otherwise you need to damp product before ironing.

Ironing on highest heat
Work in the longitudinal direction of the cloth and the edges will be smooth. It is important that the product is moist when ironing.

Mangling is not recommended
Works poorer than ironing on our easy-to-care cotton and flax/cotton tablecloths. Tableclths in 100% flax, on the other hand, must be mangled
 

Preparation

A woven cotton and flax product shrinks after weaving 10-15%. Our wet treatment process of the woven product reduces the shrinkage to 2-5%, and improves the care qualities of the product.

Linen products only undergo one water treatment. Cotton products are wrinkle-free-treated chemically, through a permanent treatment that does not vanishes in the consumer's laundry. From an environmental point of view, the treatment is carried out with the best known technology according to GOTS strict criteria. In addition, it takes place in our proprietary machine line, which is the only world completely closed from sewers.

As the last part of the preparation, the product is mangled, which improves the shine.

Smoothness after washing

What does a smooth table cloth look like?

This varies depending on the individual consumer's opinion. In ancient times, densely woven tablecloths that, after labor-intensive mangling, became glossy and extremely smooth, were the only possible option. Today's consumer is not willing to put more work into a table cloth than modern clothing requires in the form of smoothing. We realized this already in the early 1990s and have therefore adapted and developed the products' care characteristics to today's consumer requirements.

Factors affecting woven cotton and linen textiles.
The water level in your washing machine. High level produces smoother results.
Fill rate. The amount of laundry in the machine affects the smoothness. Less filling rates produce smoother goods.
Centrifugation. Short time and low rpm have a positive impact on smoothness.

Shrinkage

Factors that affect

Washing temperature. In the long term, it does not matter much - after one to two washes, the textiles take their natural position.

The amount of mechanical processing. High water level on the washing machine also do not matter in the long term. After a smaller number of washes, the textiles take their natural position.

Tumble. Triggers most of the tensions in the first run and thus immediately gets the final dimension of the textiles. Never dry linen.

Mangling / ironing. Depending on the fabric construction, you can affect the dimensions quite a lot as all textiles are more or less elastic. Our easy-to-care tablecloths have a fairly high elasticity and are thus very shapeable.

Shrinking. According to the Swedish Consumer Agency's regulations, all table textiles that shrink less than 5% may be called shrunken and that the supplier does not have to put % residual shrinkage on the label. For towels 8% are applied.

Size. The dimensions we specify in the catalog and on the paper label of the products are the minimum size after the consumer's washing is made according to our attached washing and care advice. Note! This means that the product must also be well ironed.

Color change

Several of our products contain both unbleached and bleached and colored yarn, which separately changes differently in laundry.

Colored yarn. Reactive, a staining with very high hardenings. Can be washed in whitewash 85º. Only disadvantage is that the consumer must follow the temperature instructions of the washing advise at the first washer 60°, machine wash. This is to prevent the excess color that is always present on reactively coloured yarn from being stuck on uncoloured parts of the tablecloths. The risk lies in washing at a temperature below 60ºC.

The reason is that the water or detergent lacks the ability to bind the water's lime precipitations etc. The quality of water varies, it always contains particles that settle on the textiles. The changes with the new environmentally friendly detergents are particularly significant. This is usually not a problem, as the human eye is a rather insensitive instrument if it has nothing to compare it to. Note: Most of our tablecloths contain unbleached warp and colored element yarns, which means that after washing they change the look and percieves brighter.

Changes in structure

The structure of all textiles changes with the consumer's first wash. In the textile factories, the fabrics are usually wet treated in a flat state, this together with seedling and usually hard mangling gives the product a special appearance and feel. This cannot be recreated after a consumer wash. The structure has changed a little and the product usually feels a little softer and fuller.

The reason for the changes lies in the mechanical processing, which also triggered the residual shrinking of the product. This will also affect sence and appearance.

Abrasion after washing

The laundry itself is worn through the mechanical processing and by chemicals in the detergents. You can reduce abrasion by reducing the dosage of detergents, which is also positive for the environment. Many washes are overdosed, try your way. Note! The dosage of detergent is affected by how dirty the laundry is, as well as the hardness of the water and not least how white laundry you want for it to be perceived as fresh. Drying and smoothing wears on the product with two exceptions. Tumble dryer generally wears quite a lot if you drive too long and over dry. Cold mangling of linen goods wears very hard in the folds on folded goods. The abrasion can be partially avoided by varying the folding.

Detergent

Surfactants reduce the surface tension of textiles so that the wash can penetrate and also dissolve greasey water-repellent stains. It is usually the fat that binds the dirt particles to the textile.

Chemicalls bleaches and removes the color of particles that form stains, while the textile fibers are also bleached. This means that they become whiter but also in the long run weaker.

Optical brightener. A pigment that makes the laundry look whiter. This also lead the consumer to believe that the laundry has become cleaner. It also affets the shade of bright textiles.

Phosphates. Complexing agents, which makes the dirt that have come off the textiles, remain in the washing water and not reattach to the textiles.

Perfumes may be used for giving the laundry a fresh scent.

Enzymes are included in certain detergents. They are especially good at removing stains containing egg white substances (e.g. food stains). This works by a biodegradation that, however, ceases to work if the temperature is too high. See the manufacturers recommendation.

Stain removal

Immediately remove the stain when it occurs, or at least mitigate the effect by rinsing or swabbing away the worst part. E.g. a stain from red wine on a table cloth can be mitigated by putting an uncolored paper napkin under the cloth to protect the table, and then dab the stain with water and absorb the residual water with another paper towel. Then apply salt to the stain. The salt have the ability to absorb liquid and hence mitigate the effect of the red wine to the table cloth.

Before washing, go through the laundry to find any eventual spots that can be soked with detergents like ordinary washing-up liquid. Rub it in and let it rest for 15 minutes before starting the machine.

For stains that hasn't gone away, wash again in a higher temperature. Just be sure to check the product label, wether the product can withstand the higher temperature.

Stearine stains / Candle stains

1. Place the textile in the freezer for about 30 minutes. The stearine will solidify and can mostly be rubbed off. This may have to be repeated several times.

2. Place paper towels, blotter or white paper napkins on both sides of the stain. Then melt out the stearine with an iron. If necessary, change paper and heat from the other side.

3. Wash closely following the washing instructions.

4. Colored stearine may need to be finished with bleech or textile color remover directly on the stain, followed by rinsing under water and directly after that, washing according to the products washing instructions.