WHAT WENT WRONG: READER ENQUIRY Tulle curtains cause trouble Roger Cawood and Richard Neale perform a forensic investigation in response to a reader enquiry History
The customer brought in a pair of tulle curtains. They were drycleaned and returned to the customer without any problems.
The customer returned with one curtain a couple of days later, stating that the cleaner had put a stain on one of the curtains. The stain was similar to that shown in Pic 1.
The cleaner rubbed the stain with soapy water, which appeared to remove it, causing no damage. The curtain was then given a quick clean on its own, with a 2-minute solvent wash, total cleaning time 35 minutes. There were no rips in the vicinity of the stain on removal from the machine, but the cleaner did find rips in one area of the curtain.
One large rip shown looks worse than it might have done originally, because the cleaner has tried to glue it.
Comments 1. Tulle is an open weave net-like fabric, usually involving yarns made from silk, nylon, rayon or polyester.
2. Tulle fabrics are widely used for both garments and drapes, so although they are classed as delicate fabrics, they would generally be considered robust enough for both of these end uses.
BIG REVEAL: This stain was reported to develop in the drycleaning process where nothing could be seen before
3. There are a considerable number of stain types which are not visible at pre-cleaning inspection, but which can develop in drycleaning to become very visible after cleaning, through no fault in the cleaning process. A typical example
is anything containing a sugar (such as white wine), because sugars can darken slightly with the heat of the drying stage in the cleaning machine process. This darkening then increases further with the heat in finishing. This type of developed stain could be softened and removed with soapy water, which might explain the cleaner’s apparent success with this technique.
CLASSIC RIP: This is a classic rip caused by the application of tension which the fabric could not withstand. Note that most tears follow the line of the weave, either vertically or horizontally and all of the fibre is still there
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4.There are two reasons why a tulle drape might rip in the drycleaning machine process itself. The first is a machine fault, such as a damaged or misaligned cage creating a nipping point between the rotating cage and stationary drum. Physical damage inside the cage is not uncommon and is usually associated with a heavy metal object such as a spanner striking the inner cage. Burrs in the metal cage caused by a metal strike present a major hazard to all types of delicate fabric cleaning boiler suits exposes the cleaner to much greater risk of cage damage. However, machine faults usually create problems in every load, not an incidence of rips in just one pair of curtains.
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