by June T. Bassemir
On “Ladies Night” in 1979 I was asked to give a talk to The
Model A Ford Club of Long Island. These
were my friends all dedicated to finding, saving and restoring the Model A Ford. I was the only woman in the club, having been
introduced to it by a friend who knew that I had just purchased a 1931 Sport
Coupe. He saw my need to get good advice
for restoring the car to show room condition.
Before long, other women came to the meetings with their husbands, but I
was the only woman trying to do it myself.
My effort was not to prove anything.
I just wanted to have a car with a rumble seat, for I had never ridden
in one.
My talk that night was called “How to Make Rags”. I was deadly serious but my male audience
laughed at my opening remarks. Actually,
it was a subject of great importance with vital information for those of us who
are in the restoration business. Whether
it is stripping furniture or working on a car; good, white, soft, clean rags at
your elbow are an absolute necessity.
I was prepared to show them the right way to make a rag with
one of my husband’s cotton T shirts. (He
had taken it off the night before and I snatched it from the hamper just before
I left the house.) With my sharp scissors
in hand I showed them how to cut off the neck and sleeve seams. (Thick seams do not help when you get to the
polishing stage.) The trick here in
“making rags” is not to use any Polyester material as it doesn’t absorb
anything. It’s like trying to wipe up
some oil with a piece of glass. Only
cotton cloth is to be used. Of course,
the best items are: the already mentioned T shirts; flannel sheets (which take
up too much room in the linen closet and anyway are hard to turn over on while
sleeping …) real 100% cotton sheets (they never seem to wear out), old
dishtowels (they are in abundance now that almost everyone uses a dish washer) and
men’s flannel shirts. Egyptian cotton
sheets are the best, but let’s not be fussy.
They will give you more rags than you will use in a year.
When you cut up a man’s cotton shirt you follow the same
rules as when you iron it. (But no one
irons anymore.) You begin with the neck. Cut it off and discard it; then cut off the
sleeves being sure to cut off and throw away all seams and cuffs. Slit
the back into four nice square pieces, the right size for wiping up spills of
most anything. The sleeves open up and
produce two pieces. The front halves of
the shirt are less productive because you have to cut off the pocket and both buttonhole
strips, but save the buttons for your “Button Box”. There you have it: a pile of good clean rags
for wiping your hands, dusting or cleaning up.
The talk was a success and at the end of it, I offered
several piles of five ribbon-tied-up rags @ .50 cents a pile. The demand was great and all sold very
quickly.
copyright June T. Bassemir, 2012
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