Product Care Information

Welcome to Ragged Rose’s Product Care Information Page.

At Ragged Rose, we want you to be happy with your purchase from us. We also want to ensure that you know how to look after the products. That is why we have created our Product Care Information page, with all the tricks, to show you how to preserve the product and keep it looking fresh.

We have also included how the fabrics are constructed so you can understand why velvet is more delicate than cotton.

Cotton

Our products, which are made with 100%  cotton are normally on a 2/20s x 2/20s yarn woven in a plain weave cotton duck.  This means it is a doubled yarn woven evenly plain warp to weft to avoid twisting and is a standard construction for kitchen items. This is mainly for products such as aprons tea towels and tablecloths etc. Mostly we use Indian cotton.

The fabrics are either printed using rotary printing machines. Each Ragged Rose design requires a minimum of 3,000 meters per colourway. i.e. 3 kilometres of fabric.!

If plain fabric is required then the grey cloth is then dyed to our own colour palette in huge dye machines which run on rollers into a bath of colour. We run a myriad of colours and we spend time matching colour pantones to get the right shade.

The fabrics are then set and pre shrunk  by washing, then dried and pressed.  Ready for laying up and cutting. Then they go to be quilted, embroidered or have a logo print

It is best to use an automatic wash setting at 30-40 degrees which means it does not spin them too fast i.e. max 600 – 800 revolutions and results in less creasing.  Note : a fast spin 1000 plus revs often destroys fabrics over time causing more wear and tear/rubbing and also more creasing. Items which have a 90% print coverage eg especially our red Christmas tablecloths and aprons etc require a little more care.  Due to the print inks and the dense colour eg red, it’s best to wash on a much lower temperature.  Certainly use a gentler wash cycle i.e. hand wash setting and a slow spin. This protects the dye colour and has less creasing.

However due to the nature of cotton we expect a 3% shrinkage rate which is standard for all cotton textiles.

Avoid excessive tumble drying and is often best to iron whilst damp.  A hot iron can be used.

 

Velvet

How to look after our velvet:

The majority of our products are with 100% cotton velvet which has been pre-washed –a) to reduce shrinkage b) to set the pile and colour

• Creases —————-Velvet can crease easily or mark by an indentation.  Best to lightly steam and the crease marks will fall out
• Stains——————Treat velvet like a cashmere jumper with care.  Dab very lightly with a damp cloth. Try not to rub too vigorously as this may damage the pile.  A small amount of dry clean solvent can be applied sparingly which should  remove stain depending on what it is.  Let the solvent evaporate.
• Hand Washing——- A hand wash setting can be used on a washing machine. Ie a gentle wash, slow spin and temperature 30-40 degrees max.  Best with items trimmed with pompoms to turn inside out or place in a net bag to avoid excessive tangles.
• Drying —————–Drip Dry /dry flat.  Avoid excessive tumble drying, Velvet likes a good shake.
• Ironing —————-Always iron on the reverse because of the pile fabric you don’t want to squash the pile flat so not too much pressure.  Use steam lightly

 

How velvet is made:

The term ‘velvet’ refers to the weave and not the fabric itself.

1. Velvet is woven on a specialist loom, creating a dense fabric pile which gives the velvet fabric its distinctive look and feel.
2. It is woven as a double cloth. It is made by weaving two sets of warp threads simultaneously. (Warp is the lengthwise thread on the loom, weft is across the loom.)
3. They are then cut into two pieces along the warp.
4. These two separate pieces are then rolled out separately.  This is called pile cloth.
5. The ends of the thread in this pile cloth are sticking up and sheared off.  This forms a soft, tactile pile, so the velvet’s colour changes when it is brushed in different directions.
6. Initially, velvet was made from silk which was why only royalty and the very wealthy aristocracy could afford it.  But now, it is produced from a range of different fibres ranging from the man made polyester cheaper end of the market, through to viscose, cotton and finally silk at the very premium luxury end.
7. Ragged Rose velvet fabrics are created with 100% cotton and are pre-washed before being made into products.
8. The look, colour and texture of velvet will change depending on the direction the fabric is brushed, lighting and the wear.

Should you feel that this information has not helped, or any other queries, please don’t hesitate to call us at: 01622 812897 or leave us a message  or email us at enquiries@raggedrose.com.