FEATHER PILLOWS have been called the most neglected of household furnishings. Many women who are careful about other matters never seem to think of having their pillows laundered or of washing them at home, yet good modern laundries will do them nicely for you and renovate them too if you want this done. In renovating a pillow, as opposed to simple washing, the feathers are taken out of the ticking and washed themselves. New feathers or down are then added if they are needed. Pillows that have lost their spring, that sag, or lump in one end when shaken, need renovating.



TO LAUNDER YOUR PILLOWS AT HOME you can use your electric washer, but wait for weather that is sunny and clear. Don't try to do more than one or two a day because they take quite a long time to dry. Wash one pillow at a time. These are the steps:

Press the air out of the pillow if the ticking is light. If it is heavy, open the end seams a couple of inches and squeeze the air out. Then baste the opening securely or pin it with a safety pin. Use warm water and a good mild detergent, or soap flakes plus a little softener if the water is hard. Run the machine for fifteen minutes. Rinse the pillow at least twice and spin it for at least 15 minutes to extract as much water as possible. Your pillow, when you take it out, will look as depressed as a wet cat, but do not be alarmed. Put it to dry on a clothes rack in the open air. From time to time turn it and fluff it up. It will puff up as it dries and become fat and bouncy. Do not use the pillow until you are sure it is absolutely dry in the center.

IF YOUR PILLOW NEEDS NEW TCKING, or if you want to do an especially thorough job, you can take the feathers out and wash them separately. This sounds fantastic, but it really isn't. Uncle Sam himself tells how, in a release from his housekeeping area of government. You rip out the stitches to make a sizable opening in one corner of the pillow and baste a pillow case or muslin bag securely around the opening. Shake the feathers into that, stitch up the end, and so to the washer. Wash the ticking separately. To help keep the feathers from working through the ticking, coat the inside with a good thick solution of starch. When the feathers are dry, put them back in by reversing the operation described for getting them out. If you want to use new ticking you can buy it by the yard.

Use the electric washer to launder your pillows one at a time on a sunny and clear weather. Use the mild detergent or soap flakes plus softener.