Washing linen: how to take care of the popular summer fabric

Linen has been an indispensable fabric in wardrobes across the globe since around 4500 BCE, making it the oldest woven material in the world! The popularity of this material is no surprise, considering its positive qualities. Available in various weights, the flax fabric is incredibly versatile, robust, easy to care for and skin-friendly. 

But why is it that linen fabrics are considered by many people to be high maintenance and fragile? You may have heard that linen absorbs a lot of moisture.

In fact, it actually needs this moisture to ensure that its fibres remain stable and don’t break. The most common reason for stiff, rough and inflexible linen fabrics is therefore washing them incorrectly and letting them become too dry. Find out below how to avoid this and other mistakes when washing your linen items.

Many people believe that washing their laundry at too high a temperature will destroy it, causing the fibres to shrink or break. This may be the main reason for many textiles, but for your linen fabrics it is rarely the washing temperature, and rather your choice of washing machine cycle and detergent that has an impact on them. Here are the most important tips for washing linen.

The temperature at which you can wash your linen fabrics depends primarily on the weight and composition of the material. It’s best to always follow the care instructions on the washing label of your linen clothes. This will tell you the maximum washing temperature, which is often 60 degrees Celsius for linen.

If a maximum temperature of 30 or even 40 degrees is specified, you should definitely stick to it. Otherwise, there is a risk that your linen will shrink – by up to 10%!

If the label is no longer attached, you should play it safe, especially when it comes to fine linen fabrics and blends. Washing linen at 30 or 40 degrees on a delicate wash cycle is usually no problem – robust, heavy linen tablecloths and bedding made of pure linen can often be washed on a boil wash cycle at 95 degrees Celsius.

As you can see, the washing temperatures for linen fabrics depend on many different factors. However, the fact that this material is considered particularly fragile is not due to a sensitivity to high temperatures.

What’s more important is making sure that linen fabrics are not exposed to excessive friction. This ensures that the fibres of the flax fabric don’t get worn down, but remain smooth and flexible. It is therefore best to choose a delicate wash cycle with a maximum of 600 rotations per minute, or wash particularly fine clothes on a hand wash cycle.

To avoid further friction, you should also turn your laundry inside out and only half fill your washing machine. It is best to only wash your linen laundry together with other linen fabrics or fine textiles such as silk, and avoid washing it with hard textiles such as jeans.

Your choice of detergent is also important in order to make the natural material last for as long as possible. Especially for dyed linen, you should avoid using brightening detergents or other bleaching agents. Instead, choose a sensitive colour detergent that preserves the colours of your clothes and keeps them looking as good as new.

There is also no reason to use fabric conditioners on linen fabrics, since the softeners they contain alter the natural properties and feel of the fabric in the long term. All you need to do is simply follow our tips and you’ll enjoy lastingly beautiful, soft linen fabrics.

A particularly important point to note when it comes to looking after linen fabrics is not to tumble dry them. In the warm summer months, tumble drying not only means using an unnecessary amount of electricity on thin, fast-drying linen fabrics, it can also damage them in two ways.

Firstly, putting linen in the tumble dryer exposes it to strong friction that, without water, is even harsher than in the washing machine. Secondly, linen should not be exposed to excessively dry heat, otherwise the fibres will dry out and break. To ensure that linen can retain the necessary moisture in its fibres, you should always allow the fabric to air-dry.

In summer, you can simply hang your laundry in the sun to dry it in no time at all – with light-coloured linen, the sun also has a natural bleaching effect that can remove even heavy soiling.

Linen is a fabric that is quite prone to creasing and should therefore ideally be ironed. Alternatively, you can hang individual items of clothing that have small wrinkles in the bathroom while you’re having a hot shower. Thin shirts or dresses made of linen absorb the steam very quickly and smooth themselves out.

When ironing, it’s also important to ensure you’re using enough moisture. To avoid applying dry heat like in a tumble dryer, iron linen fabrics while they’re damp and then allow the residual moisture to air-dry. Clothes that have already dried can be sprayed with water again before ironing. Ideally, if you have a steam iron, you can use this to iron your linen fabrics particularly gently and efficiently using steam.

You now know the most important tips for washing, drying and ironing linen fabrics. However, special care is required for particularly delicate linen or very stubborn stains. We therefore have three additional care tips that you should bear in mind when looking after linen.

To make your linen laundry crease less, you should soak your clothes in cold water before washing them for the first time. Place them in a tub/bucket overnight so that the fibres can soak properly. This keeps them more flexible and means they’re less likely to break during washing. What’s more, this type of pre-treatment makes it easier to remove stubborn stains from clothes.

Red wine on a white linen dress, a grass stain on linen trousers or sweat marks on a light-coloured linen shirt – if you want to remove stubborn stains from linen, you should use natural concoctions that maintain the structure of the fibres.

Instead of chemical stain removers, you can try making a mixture of water, washing soda and citric acid. Apply this to the stain, rub it in gently, let it soak briefly and then rinse it off. Now put the garment in the washing machine as usual.

You can do the same with gall soap or white vinegar. Both methods are natural and the latter also has the advantage of not bleaching linen fabrics that are dyed. If the stains are still there after washing, leave your light-coloured clothes to dry in direct sunlight; the UV rays have a natural but powerful bleaching effect that often removes even the most stubborn stains.

Nowadays, we have access to very delicate, thin linen fabrics that have the best properties for hot summer days. To ensure that any fancy linen shirts, blouses, dresses or skirts are not exposed to unnecessary friction, you can wash them in a large laundry bag or in a thin cotton pillowcase. This will ensure that you can enjoy your expensive linen evening wear for many years to come.

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