chef coat maintenance

[siduri]

I'm not a professional but i have a little experience with stains. I don;t ever use bleach because it really deteriorates the fabric, and after a few washings it begins to fray or rip easily. Instead washing soda (arm and hammer in the states) (it's not baking soda, but washing soda, stronger) is miraculous - for things with stains, wet it, sprinkle the soda on the cloth (this works on colors too, like jeans with heavy grease stains) roll it up and throw in the washing machine with the hottest water the color will take. The cloth should look like you got it wet and sat on the sandy beach, completely covering the cloth.

For yellowed white cotton, i;ve gone back to the methods of the olden days - boiling the cloth in a pot on the stove with washing soda. (actually, for curiosity, i tried ashes too - the way clothes used to be washed - they'd layer the cloth with sifted ashes and fill the pot with water and boil. When they cooled down they'd wash them (I tossed in the washing machine) and they actually did get clean. the ash mixed with the grease produced soap)
On the other hand i can;t seem to get out the gradually increasing dingy grey that comes with repeated washing in hard water.

I imagine you all know about getting stuck burned pots clean by filling with water and washing soda and boiling - the burnt on stuff just lifts off.

[damack]

Originally Posted by shroomgirl

my are t-shirts....there is a pile of 30 or so white t-shirts with propaganda from past events that have really rough stains. How can I wear an apron and still end up with blood on my stomach?
ugh. too many rags and not enough shirts that are clean.....

ya i have a few shirts where i work where dont wear chef jackets they get stains but luckly i whear a black apron, T-shits with the compay logo on it, but at culanary school i whear my jacket, i bleach my 3 jackets evey week and i have got blood( yes mine bad cut last week and chicken) BBQ sauce and eveything eles. also spray the **** out of it with simple green and let it sit in a bucket with water after you scrub it then after a day wash it

[the_seraphim]

i have some jackets that have started to go grey... i only need them to last oh i dunno a month or so, so im prepared to go all out with the bleach to get them to sparkle... they are 100% cotton so they should survive...

at the minute ive got them in a boil wash with some fairly strong detergent stuff...

but then im no expert... if all else fails theres a dry cleaners in tesco/sainsbury who will sort them and spare (new!) jackets at work on hire from a company who keeps them clean and repaired and stuff...