Yay me I washed the draperies

**cojo** · 03-24-2009, 11:32 AM

So I bought and moved into my grandmother's old house in January. She left all the draperies and window treatments. In the living room she has a very elaborate window treatment - lined drapes on top of lace curtains, and on top of that are some half-circle drapes. There are 5 windows in the room, so 10 drapes plus 10 lace panels plus 9 half circles plus 8 decorative corner panels.

The other day I was dusting and realized there was a VERY thick layer of dust nesting in the pleats of these draperies. In the 15-plus years they have had these draperies I do not think they have EVER been cleaned so you can imagine!!

I took down one half-circle and read that it is "Dry clean only" but fortunately I know that the manufacturers write that just to be cautious.

I washed it in cold water on a gentle setting with very mild detergent and put them in the dryer on a gentle setting. It turned out fine so now I'm in the process of washing the rest. I did have to press the pleats back into the drapes but once I got the hang of it they're turning out fine.

They did have some mild shrinkage (about 2" on the long drapes) but it said that on the tag so I'm not concerned. They actually look DARKER now that the dust is off.

Anyway, I'm very proud of myself because I think the dry cleaning bill would have been huge for these curtains.