Cleaning clothes

[Epictetus]

I think most people here know that I'm not a re-enactor, so please forgive the following extremely basic question:

How do you clean your clothes? Do you just toss your tunic in a washing machine with everything else, or do it by hand by some ancient method, or what?

I was amazed at the Photos from Marathon thread and began wondering how all the clothes looked so good.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

You mean how they looked so clean? Well...it was only 3-4 days and most of us had a pair of chitons or more.
An authentic way to clean them however is with ash. I clean mine at home with modern soap by hand.
Khaire
Giannis

[M. Demetrius]

We choose not to sweat on our better clothing. That helps keep them clean.

OK, truth:
I wash my tunics in the machine, cold water, but I don't dry the woolen ones in the dryer. A broomstick through the sleeves and hung up, they dry pretty quickly, but don't have clothespin marks on the upper seam. Some colors never stop fading, so those get washed with similar colors or separately. Nothing quite like a pink tunic, you know? We know they had them, but ---

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Well, I just washed a woolen tunic with clavii that was well stained with oil and general re-enacting mess...food stains etc. At least a whole seasons worth....

Used modern biological liquid washing detergent in luke warm water to soak and hand wash...then a few runs in the wash machine too...

Hung to dry in a corner....seems to still fit!

[M. Demetrius]

But once in the dryer on high heat, you'll be handing down a winter tunic to someone half your size. :wink:
Best not to do that unless you have a nephew you want to make happy.

[Robert Vermaat]

I wash by hand, 99% of the time. I soak the clothing in lukewarm water all night, and in the morning I hang them out to dry, outside if possible. Usually that does the trick. Only the linen gets to see the machine from the inside once in a while. :wink:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I never said I used a dryer.. :wink:

And actually, the 40 setting did not do any damage i could see.
Now a moreelaborate tunic....i will just stand in a corner behind a glass screen I think :lol:

[Quintius Clavus]

Before I make any garment - modern or ancient - I prewash the fabric and throw it in the dryer, too. Then for wools and linens, they never "see" the inside of a dryer again. All subsequent washing of tunics is either by hand or machine in cold water. Then I hang them to dry. Wool actually drys fairly quickly.
I, too, have more than one, in fact I have several tunics and generally take more than one to reenactments and will bring both wool and linen to summer events. I have one wool tunic that I made back in 1991 and it is still doing well - only had to darn one small hole - and I wear it fairly often; it is a light-weight, good quality wool.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Yes, thats a good point I forgot. i also washed all my wool and linen, and dryed it in tumble dryers.
The idea is it should b=not shrink too much after that, either from being soaked wit hsweat or washing!
And i was pretty surprised too, to see how quickly the wool dries!

[Kineas]

I agree with all that--but also note that Ancient wools were fulled and probably cleaned with fulling earths--at least that's what my Greek and Roman A-Z states (and backs up with primary sources). Worth experimenting with fulling and pressing as a method of cleaning and storing...

[John Conyard]

Air your clothes, you do not have to wash them. Just change your mindset. People did not wash their clothes that often in the classical period. So save yourself the worry. You will only get them dirty. Keep yourself clean and your clothes do not seem so bad.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Sorry Christian, it's a language problem, but what is fulling earths?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Air your clothes, you do not have to wash them. Just change your mindset. People did not wash their clothes that often in the classical period. So save yourself the worry. You will only get them dirty. Keep yourself clean and your clothes do not seem so bad.

I do keep myself clean!! :eek: :eek:
But as you recall, I leave my mail slightly oiled...I recall a few jibes over the season...so the tunic was pretty grotty over all!
i did wash my brachae again though with the intention of shrinking them a bit.
They were made deliberately baggy as I didn't wan't to be extra-ventilated at the wrong time!

But, over the season I agree, they did not smell unclean, just a little smokey, which I imagine was a good insect/vermin repllant too!

[Iraklitos]

Wash!!! Bite your tongue.

Just let it air dry and if you really need to you can hit it with some Frebreeze (it's nicer than Lisol).

Trick for the clothes line: turn your chiton inside out and only have the clothes pins on the extra part above the seam, that way nothing will show when you turn it right side out.

[Epictetus]

Thanks for all the replies. I see there are a wide variety of methods.