The Sewing Place

Tools of the Trade => The Haberdashery => Topic started by: Efemera on December 23, 2017, 17:37:36 PM

Title: If I had a mangle...
Post by: Efemera on December 23, 2017, 17:37:36 PM
these would be just the job... I love old haberdashery.
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: arrow on December 23, 2017, 17:46:36 PM
I sometimes use my moms mangle for table cloths that comes out nicer than ironing. I don't do anything to my bed linen, I guess modern living has made me lazy and nothing is that nice anymore. It's wased on 95C every week, but usually goes in the tumble drier. When the weather is nice and stretch and flatten it best I can and hang it out to dry, that's the best I can do at the moment.
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: sewingj on December 23, 2017, 18:56:23 PM
I`ve got my granny`s old mangle - it was the only thing I wanted when her house was sold.It stands outside my back door and sadly its mangling days are over.  It does look a picture in the summer with a trough of flowers balanced on it though
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: arrow on December 23, 2017, 20:26:38 PM
If I ever get a proper washing room and enough space I will get a large one. As long as it's in good condition I don't mind an old with wooden roll pins, cast iron stand and hand operated. There are of course new ones with motor and rubber roll pins. (I'm not sure pins are the right word but I could not think of anything else).

Some have this idea they could be used for wringing up clothes, but I have discovered that's all wrong. The wood absorbs water and will loose it's shape. They had separate wringers, even if some misused their equipment.

When we have a routine this doesn't take much more time than folding it up.
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: SkoutSews on December 23, 2017, 20:41:45 PM
Mangles are terrible for pinching fingers - very painful, if you're on the end of the flattened fingers once, you treat mangles with huge respect thereafter. Motorised mangles are downright dangerous and can result in amputation.

 ;) Happy Christmas!
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: arrow on December 23, 2017, 21:25:51 PM
Maybe just stay away from the electrical ones then. I know older appartment buildings with shared laundry room often have all kinds of equipment, and I have seen the electrical versions several times. I don't know how many of us that bothers anymore.

When I was a child I used to help with the laundry, stretching bed linnen and the mangle on that loft was very much like this one. I can't remember if it was on wheels, but I think it was green, maybe black, with some red and gold. My mother's is smaller, I might be able to find space for one.

(http://www.smitsnett.com/images/Bilder/Kildal3/klesrulle.jpg)
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: SkoutSews on December 23, 2017, 21:44:44 PM
Yes, motorised ones can drag your arm in before you get a chance to knock the 'off' switch. When I was a child we had one, briefly, luckily no accidents in our household, but the reports of nasty injuries were enough to make my parents get rid of it.

There was a hand-operated mangle at the school swimming pool for wet swimsuits. After a few pinched finger incidents, it became the rule that the handle had to be operated by the person feeding in the wet swimming cossie!
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: Ploshkin on December 23, 2017, 21:54:08 PM
Rubber buttons - that takes me back.
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: Ellabella on December 23, 2017, 21:58:50 PM
Liberty bodices?
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: arrow on December 23, 2017, 23:11:45 PM
We only mangled bedlinen, table cloths and napkins. On the button card it looks like you can mangle a shirt? I can't see how that can be an advantage to iron? The buttons I was used to weren't rubber, I think they were thin aluminium covered in white cotton fabric.
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: Lilian on December 23, 2017, 23:20:51 PM
My first thought when I read the OP was the liberty bodices I used to wear with those rubber buttons.  I remember when I was able to do them up myself (makes me feel old  :o) The local hand carwash use a mangle to wring out the cloths, it's very old and a bit rusty but stays outside all year long.  The memories are flooding back.  :)
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: Bowerbird on December 23, 2017, 23:39:51 PM
...I'd mangle in the morning

and don't tell me none of you thought that when you saw the heading  0_0
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: Madame Cholet on December 24, 2017, 00:00:40 AM
...I'd mangle in the morning

and don't tell me none of you thought that when you saw the heading  0_0

Well my personal ear worm was to the tune of 'If I were a rich man', (Fiddler on the Roof)... complete with "all day long I'd biddy-biddy-bum," etc, whatever that means... !  :|
I do own a mangle, not a huge one like the one pictured, somewhat smaller than that.  It has rubber rollers and I used to use it when I dyed wool yarn aeons ago, it was great for wringing out wet skeins, as wool holds such a lot of water.  It is sitting in my back yard at the minute with a cover over it while I decide whether to sell it on or not. 

When I was a tot my family had one of these:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Early-60s-English-Electric-Washing-Machine-With-Mangle/162712221255?hash=item25e2677647:g:EBUAAOSwq4hZ4di-
I used to love the hot steamy smell of the washing swishing around in the tub, and the wooden tongs always fascinated me.  The thing seemed huge to me at the time, and I could only peer into it if I stood on tip toe.  Sometimes I was allowed to help turn the mangle, which was a great treat  :)
 
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: Bowerbird on December 24, 2017, 00:15:10 AM
Madame Cholet-Mum had one very similar when we were kids, much to my aunt's chagrin. Everytime Mum was in hospital having another baby said aunt would come to stay & look after us. Each visit seemed to include a child getting it's hand caught in the mangle when helping her with the laundry. We all emerged unscathed and we all adored her, and she bravely kept coming to help, but it became a standing joke in the family. I don't think her laundry mis-adventures were responsible for returning to Scotland, but she maybe wished Mum & Dad didn't have quite so many children (as did they themselves).
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: arrow on December 24, 2017, 01:30:55 AM
Until I was about 6 or 7 we had an English Electric washing machine, not quite as old as the one you linked to Mme Cholet, but it was a top loader and it had an auto spin cycle. I don't know if the brand exist anymore. We have very good washing machines these days, but our clothes turned out clean then too :- )
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: Sewbee on December 24, 2017, 08:00:47 AM
Until I was about 6 or 7 we had an English Electric washing machine, not quite as old as the one you linked to Mme Cholet, but it was a top loader and it had an auto spin cycle. I don't know if the brand exist anymore. We have very good washing machines these days, but our clothes turned out clean then too :- )

Yes, but I think the older ones had a hose connecting to the sink, didn't they?

The washers here are good now. The dryers aren't too bad either. I just bought one about a month ago and I've rewashed everything in sight simply to soften and defluff! Civilisation at last! :)
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: UttaRetch on December 24, 2017, 08:34:30 AM
Liberty bodices?
Found a little blog entry (http://memoriesofnorthamptonpast.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/my-diary-for-22nd-september-2012-by-ann.html) about this very garment and the rubber buttons.
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: Efemera on December 24, 2017, 09:12:38 AM
We only mangled bedlinen, table cloths and napkins. On the button card it looks like you can mangle a shirt? I can't see how that can be an advantage to iron? The buttons I was used to weren't rubber, I think they were thin aluminium covered in white cotton fabric.

I think the buttons may at one time have been rubber but now they are as hard as rock!
Title: Re: If I had a mangle...
Post by: jen on December 24, 2017, 09:40:00 AM
Liberty bodices - how I hated them. Why 'liberty' I wondered, being forcibly buttoned up in one of the ugly things.