Collar wear on linen
What changes on linen. Linen fibres are stiff and inelastic, so a repeated fold abrades them through rather than just soiling them. The grey line may be thinning, not dirt.
The method for linen
- 1Hold the collar to the light. If light comes through the fold line, that is fibre loss and no amount of washing changes it.
- 2If it is soiling, work a little shampoo into the fold and leave it 30 minutes, then wash warm.
- 3Do not scrub a linen fold. The stiffness that makes linen crease also makes it break under abrasion.
- 4Press with steam and plenty of moisture; a dry hot iron on a worn linen fold cuts it.
- 5For a worn edge on a shirt worth keeping, turning the collar works on linen as it does on cotton.
What ruins it
Do not treat linen creasing as a defect to be removed. Wrinkling is inherent to the fibre and pressing it out repeatedly is what wears the folds through.
The general case, and what it costs you
The general method, the detection notes and what this does to a garment's resale value are on the collar wear page.
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