How to Whiten a Down Shawl Properly

If you expect a pure white colour from an Orenburg shawl, you should know that goat down is never pure white. By nature, this raw material is milky in shade with a slight yellow tinge. Whiteness is given to the items artificially, often at the expense of their valuable qualities. Whether to whiten an Orenburg shawl or not is for you alone to decide. However, if you choose the first option, you should carefully consider not only the choice of the whitener itself but also the composition of the water used. It is better to use boiled water for whitening. Before immersing the whole item in the whitening solution, try experimenting on a small piece of down.

To whiten a gossamer shawl or stole, you will need a special whitener for wool, which can be bought in a shop. If you managed to buy such a product, the process comes down to following the instructions on the packaging. If no such product is found in local shops, do not despair: you can prepare a whitening solution yourself. To do this, dissolve 2 tablespoons of sodium hydrosulphite in 10 litres of water no hotter than 50 degrees. The down shawl is immersed in the resulting solution and kept in it for half an hour. From time to time the item is turned over so that the whitener penetrates better.

Otherwise, the rules of whitening are the same as the rules for washing down items – they must not be wrung out or twisted, and you should not rub the fabric too hard. After 30 minutes, the shawl must be rinsed thoroughly – first in warm water and then in cool water. Vinegar can be added to the rinsing water (a couple of tablespoons per 10 litres). The shawl is dried stretched on a special frame. We wrote about this in detail in the previous article "How to wash a down shawl».