Table Linens: The Topic

[chezcherie]

zout works well.zout

[Kim Shook]

I hope I don't sound like a commercial, but I swear by a combination of a Spray 'n Wash stain stick and OxyClean powder. I rub the spots with the stain stick and use the Oxy Clean in the washer with at least warm water. If they are really bad spots, I fill the washer and let it agitate a minute and then stop it and let is soak for 25 minutes. This has even worked on cranberry sauce on a white tablecloth.

[thock]

I use cloth napkins for everything, and when we eat messy foods, we dampen them with warm or hot water. I have never had trouble getting stains out of white linen or cotton napkins in the regular wash, but I don't use hot water.

I get my napkins at thrift stores and yard sales, so I use the fancy ones all the time.

Tracy

[Lisa Shock]

I hope I don't sound like a commercial, but I swear by a combination of a Spray 'n Wash stain stick and OxyClean powder. I rub the spots with the stain stick and use the Oxy Clean in the washer with at least warm water. If they are really bad spots, I fill the washer and let it agitate a minute and then stop it and let is soak for 25 minutes. This has even worked on cranberry sauce on a white tablecloth.

I second this. The Oxy Clean agitate-then-soak method is a lifesaver.

[baroness]

OK while I am totally into cloth napkins for a formal dinner I don't think they are appropriate for finger food like chicken and ribs. For those I keep some white facecloths which I dampen with hot water and offer them with the finger food. Failing that I think paper napkins are perfectly adequate with messy finger foods. Just my opinion though.

I'm with Anna on the issue of quite messy foods; as a guest I would feel guilty using cloth napkins for finger food.

[baroness]

I use cloth napkins for everything, and when we eat messy foods, we dampen them with warm or hot water. I have never had trouble getting stains out of white linen or cotton napkins in the regular wash, but I don't use hot water.

I get my napkins at thrift stores and yard sales, so I use the fancy ones all the time.

Tracy

The fiber content of napkins is key; natural fibers like cotton and linen are absorbent and will come clean with sufficient effort. "Modern" synthetic napkins are horrid at blotting and tend to hold onto oily stains, IMO.

[Anna N]

OK while I am totally into cloth napkins for a formal dinner I don't think they are appropriate for finger food like chicken and ribs. For those I keep some white facecloths which I dampen with hot water and offer them with the finger food. Failing that I think paper napkins are perfectly adequate with messy finger foods. Just my opinion though.

I'm with Anna on the issue of quite messy foods; as a guest I would feel guilty using cloth napkins for finger food.

Yep - that was my other issue - I would likely wipe my hands on my pants before I'd use a lovely linen napkin for ribs! Now how gauche is that!

[weinoo]

OK while I am totally into cloth napkins for a formal dinner I don't think they are appropriate for finger food like chicken and ribs. For those I keep some white facecloths which I dampen with hot water and offer them with the finger food. Failing that I think paper napkins are perfectly adequate with messy finger foods. Just my opinion though.

I'm with Anna on the issue of quite messy foods; as a guest I would feel guilty using cloth napkins for finger food.

Yep - that was my other issue - I would likely wipe my hands on my pants before I'd use a lovely linen napkin for ribs! Now how gauche is that!

That's all well and good, and thanks for this advice, but it has not a lot to do with my original question.

[Katie Meadow]

Cloth almost exclusively. I don't eat a lot of ribs or bbq, but if I did, I would probably be eating outside in the summer and I might just grab some big paper Ikea napkins for that.

I don't find 100% cotton napkins difficult to keep clean, but that said, I don't use expensive white ones, either. I tend to buy relatively cheap patterned napkins, in a mid-range of color. Much more forgiving. For company I use my newest set, the one that works with my big tablecloth. The rest of the time I use a hodge-podge of different sets from past lives. They don't get washed after every use unless they get dirty. I've got a couple of sets that have lasted close to 20 years--you know, those stripey Guatemalan ones from some vacation or other or the ones that matched the red-check tablecloth that got used back when there was a chianti bottle with candle wax dripping all over it. Now that was way more than 20 years ago.

I too am a big fan of Zout, although it is rarely needed for napkins--more often for cooking stains when I'm too lazy to put on my apron.

Oh, if they start to look dull or I suspect the stains won't wash out, I use hot water and just the teensiest bit of bleach.

Edited February 27, 2010 by Katie Meadow (log)

[thock]

Exactly! I only use cotton or linen. And as long as I wash in no-hotter-than-warm water, all the stains come out, even the pre-stained stains from the second-hand napkins. Oxi-Clean works wonders, but so does a soak in borax.

I use, typically, a homemade mix of grated bar soap, borax and washing soda, which I've mixed with hot water, then let sit until it gels up. I use that for all my laundry, and it works well. I have a high-efficiency washer, and it works in that, and it also worked in my non-high-efficiency washer in a previous life. If I have stubborn stains on vegetable fibers (cotton, linen, ramie, etc.), then a dose of Oxi-Clean gets added if the first wash doesn't remove the stain.

Tracy

[thock]

Yep - that was my other issue - I would likely wipe my hands on my pants before I'd use a lovely linen napkin for ribs! Now how gauche is that!

I fix that problem as a host by being the first one to use my lovely linen napkins for something messy, so the guests don't feel guilty.

(edited to fix issue with not having quoted what I wanted to quote )

Edited February 28, 2010 by heidih
Fixed quote tags (log)

[Chris Hennes]

My "secret" is to use white napkins and the bleach the #$%^ out of them. Works great! Are you trying to clean colored ones?

[weinoo]

My "secret" is to use white napkins and the bleach the #$%^ out of them. Works great! Are you trying to clean colored ones?

Yes, and I didn't realize till I read the tags that they are not 100% cotton, so there's that problem as well.

Ended up doing an overnight soak with Oxyclean in my kitchen sink - can't soak in the washing machines since they're shared. Gave them a good swishing and rubbing and let them sit there till morning, when I washed them with more Oxyclean in the machines. I have to say they came out looking almost as good as coming from the dry cleaner, so that'll be my go-to method. That, and buying only 100% cotton stuff from now on.

[Kent Wang]

I'm thinking about making my own. I think I've only seen cotton ones, but is linen a good alternative? Any pros and cons between the two?

 

What do you use at home? Darker colors and patterns for hiding stains?

[Darienne]

Our dining room table is very large and I don't think I could afford to buy a tablecloth to cover it and so I have made my own.  And they are solid color only, a lighter color if you scaled terra cotta back.   And something like this color range.  Thus the napkins are from the same material and are solid.   Mostly we don't use them except for special occasions, but use the dinner type commercial paper napkins.  Not much help I fear.

[Smithy]

I use cloth napkins almost exclusively, partly for waste reduction reasons and partly because I love textiles. The best ones are long-staple cotton in a standard (nondirectional) weave: my twill-weave napkins invariably dry into a nonsquare rhombus unless carefully stretched when drying. The weight of the fabric also seems to matter for determining how much they'll wrinkle; to some degree, heavier is better but there's a limit I can't define. Cotton/poly blends may be more stain- and wrinkle-resistant, but with too much polyester the feel changes and I don't like them as well. Linen has a lovely feel, but unless you're very easy-going about wrinkles it requires ironing after every wash.

I have solid and patterned, in a broad range of colors. Patterns help hide stains, as do dark solid colors. Some of my favorite napkins are handmade with a print on white background; I prefer not to use them when marinara or chocolate are involved. :-)

[Mjx]

If you're okay with ironing (or wrinkled napkins), linen is fine. Otherwise, I'd go with cotton (which is also cheaper, although depending on the cotton, conks out sooner). Unless you're using white napkins and a ton of bleach, you will never ever remove certain stains, so dark colours are the way to go.

[chefmd]

I use cloth napkins except for very large parties.  Hate to create waste and also it is so much pleasant to touch cloth.  Have them in different colors.  Lighter color ones sadly stain fast but DH and I do not mind using them when it is just the two of us.  I bought a bunch of very high quality napkins couple of years ago from Sur La Table when they discontinued that particular line and luckily they were dark.  When people visit for the first time, they are often amused that napkins are not paper which is suprising to me.

[HungryChris]

Cloth napkins are one luxury we like to indulge in. Because they are now used less commonly, we look for them at flea markets and the like. We can find them quite often in elegant format for less than 2 for a dollar. It is just one side of fine dining that is easy to attain and kind of fun. We both like linen, but the feel and heft of the fabric says it all. If it feels right, we buy them. They all really need to be ironed, so the more you have, the less frequently the ironing sessions need to be.  

 

HC

[Kent Wang]

How do restaurants keep their white napkins clean? Lots of bleach?

 

The best ones are long-staple cotton in a standard (nondirectional) weave: my twill-weave napkins invariably dry into a nonsquare rhombus unless carefully stretched when drying. The weight of the fabric also seems to matter for determining how much they'll wrinkle; to some degree, heavier is better but there's a limit I can't define. Cotton/poly blends may be more stain- and wrinkle-resistant, but with too much polyester the feel changes and I don't like them as well. Linen has a lovely feel, but unless you're very easy-going about wrinkles it requires ironing after every wash.
 

That might be tricky to find. Would herringbone work?

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I like both linen and cotton, but a good polyester cotton blend is not only perma-press and more stain resistant, but lasts years longer. I have some clothes from the 70's I still wear that are poly-cotton. Granted, I've had to park them in the closet for over a decade at times due to weight gain, but all the cottons from that era are tattered rags or dust under the same conditions.

 

I even have 20-year-old towels made with this blend. The way I understand it, the core of the weave is poly, and the outer layer is the cotton. The good ones feel and absorb like cotton but last two or three times longer, don't need ironing, and don't take stains nearly as badly.

 

Bleach may remove stains, but if you use it very often or in strong concentration, you will give up longevity of your fabrics.

 

I have red napkins I use whenever we have ribs, pasta with red sauce or anything else that would stain a lighter color.

[Smithy]

How do restaurants keep their white napkins clean? Lots of bleach?

Probably, along with industrial-strength laundry cycles. As noted above, bleach can reduce the longevity of the cloth. You definitely don't want to use it on a cotton-poly blend/

That might be tricky to find. Would herringbone work?

Good question! From what I've read so far, herringbone weave is a variant on the twill weave. I suspect it would shorten symmetrically so that you had a rectangle instead of a square; if so, preshrinking the fabric would allow you to cut and keep squares. You're supposed to preshrink anyway, but I'm not convinced it would have helped the twill napkins (commercially made) I bought.

[weinoo]

Probably, along with industrial-strength laundry cycles. As noted above, bleach can reduce the longevity of the cloth. You definitely don't want to use it on a cotton-poly blend/

 

Yes - my guess is water that's much hotter than you would normally use at home, and maybe even using some lye in the cycle.

[LaurieB]

One word:  Oxyclean.  It's a miracle.

[Smithy]

I've just learned that there are cotton/linen blend fabrics that might give you the best of all worlds for dinner napkins. I've also confirmed that there are a lot of factors that affect the way fabric shrinks, so my "avoid twill" comment may have been overly simplistic. You might be best off going to your local fabric store and asking after good fabric for dinner napkins, and getting expert advice, if you have such a place available. This site has some discussion about shrinkage and people who sound like they know what they're talking about.