I put my drapes in the dryer after washing. I did not take them out right away so the backing stuck together in several places. How can I get them unstuck without damaging the drapes? Is it possible?
By Pat O.
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
I don't know if there is a way to save them. My experience with foam backed draperies is that no matter how careful you are the foam will stick together in a few places. When I washed mine I put them in the dryer one panel at a time, before putting them in the dryer, I shook them our really well. I took them out of the dryer while still damp, and again shook them out well, and took the panel up to the living room and hung it up while damp. Even so, there were some tiny little spots that when the drapes were pulled all the way across the window, I could see daylight. My living room drapes were large enough that I had to wash them one panel at a time. The same thing applied to one of the bedrooms.
What Redhatterb said is pretty much my experience too. I ended up soaking the panels in hot water and gently pulling them apart. After I got them apart I hung them from the shower curtain to dry, but they never looked right again as foam lined drapes.
I finally picked as much of the foam off that I could and lined the drapes with a thick lining fabric WalMart used to sell. It came in a package marked as drapery lining.
Now that stuff worked! I hand stitched it to the formerly foam lined drapes and noticed a real difference in how much heat loss the newly lined drapes cut. It was wonderful, and the best part after the energy saving was that the drapes were really machine washable after I lined them with good old fashioned thick fabric.
I don't know if the ones you have can be saved, but my suggestion would be to never put them in the dryer in the first place. I wash mine in cold water, running them through an extra rinse cycle, then hang them directly back up on the windows.
This might be worth a try. Put the drapery panels back in the dryer just long enough on just hot enough setting to re-heat. If more than one panel is in the dryer, stop the dryer long enough to take one panel out and see if the stuck-together parts will separate. Repeat for other panels, if necessary. If they're already ruined, trying this probably won't do much more harm, and may actually work! Blessings.
Even if you caan pull them apart they will probably be damaged, you can repair with rug backing.
Add your voice! Click below to answer. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
