Beautifully pressed altar linens begin with what happens before the iron ever touches the fabric. Inspect linens for stains first, launder them with a gentle detergent and room to move in the wash, remove them promptly, and press while the fabric is still damp, moving the iron with the grain. Handled this way, altar linens hold their crisp, flat finish and hold up to many more years of parish use.

This post is Part 4 in The Complete Guide to Church Linen, Ecclesiastical Sewing’s ongoing series on sewing, mending, and caring for altar linens. Part 1 covers preshrinking linen before it’s ever cut, and this installment picks up on the other end, once the linen is sewn, in regular use, and needs to be laundered and pressed correctly week after week.

Quick Reference: Laundering and Pressing Church Linens

• Inspect first. Check the linen for stains before it goes anywhere near the washer, and treat what you find rather than washing over it.
• Wash gently. Use a gentle detergent and give the linens room to move in the machine. Don’t pack the load tight. Hand-wash antique, heirloom, or delicate lace-trimmed pieces instead of using the machine.
• Remove promptly. Take linens out as soon as the cycle ends. Don’t let them sit in the machine.
• Air-dry to damp. Let linens air-dry only until they’re evenly damp, not bone dry.
• Re-dampen if needed. If a linen fully dries before you press it, mist it evenly with water, roll it loosely in a towel, and let the moisture even out.
• Press with the grain. Use a hot iron, keep it moving, and press along the grain of the fabric until it’s completely dry.
• Embroidery face down. Press raised embroidery from the reverse side, face down on a clean, padded towel. Lower the heat for metallic or goldwork thread.
• Never store damp. Fold and put away linens only once they’re completely dry.

Step-by-Step: Laundering and Pressing Church Linens

Inspect and Treat Stains First

Before any altar linen goes into the wash, take a minute to look it over in good light. Wine, blood, wax, and general soil each need slightly different treatment before laundering, and running a stained linen through a normal wash cycle without pretreating it can set the stain for good. We cover wine, blood, and wax in detail in Part 5 of this series, Removing Wine, Blood, and Wax Stains from Church Linens. If the mark in question is chrism or another anointing oil, that has its own dedicated guide, since oil-based stains behave differently and need their own approach: What Happens When Chrism Oil Stains a Vestment.

Wash With Room to Move

Once any stains have been treated, wash altar linens with a gentle detergent, on a gentle cycle if the machine has one. If a piece is antique, heirloom, or trimmed with fragile lace or delicate hand embroidery, hand-wash it instead in a basin of cool water with the same gentle detergent, since even a gentle machine cycle can be too much agitation for aged or fragile fibers. Give the linens room to move in the drum rather than packing the load tight. Crowded linens can’t agitate freely, they twist and crease against each other, and creases set during washing are far harder to press out later than creases that never had the chance to form.

Remove Promptly and Air-Dry to Damp

As soon as the wash cycle finishes, take the linens out. Letting laundered linen sit in a wet machine, even briefly, invites mildew and a musty smell, especially in a sacristy that doesn’t get much air movement. Air-dry the linens only until they’re evenly damp, not soaking and not bone dry. Evenly damp linen presses easily and takes a crisp, flat finish. Fully dried linen is harder to press smooth and usually needs re-dampening before it will hold a sharp press at all.

Re-Dampen Linen That Has Fully Dried

If a linen dries completely before you get to press it, don’t press it dry. Mist it evenly with water, or with a spray sizing such as Mary Ellen’s Best Press (a sizing and finishing spray available at most fabric and quilting shops, not something Ecclesiastical Sewing carries), then roll it loosely in a clean towel and let it sit for several minutes. This gives the moisture time to work through the fibers evenly instead of sitting on the surface, so the iron isn’t just pushing a damp patch around the fabric.

Press With a Hot Iron, Along the Grain

Set the iron hot and keep it moving. Press with the grain of the linen, the direction the threads run, rather than working diagonally or side to side across the weave. Pressing against the grain stretches the fabric slightly and can leave a faint sheen or shadow line that’s hard to press out later. Keep pressing until the linen is completely dry. A linen that still feels cool or faintly damp to the touch hasn’t finished drying, even if it looks flat. This full heat is for the plain linen ground fabric; ease off for lace trim and metallic-thread embroidery, covered below.

Pressing Raised Embroidery

Raised or padded embroidery, the kind found on burses, veils, and fair linen crosses, can flatten or take on an unwanted shine under direct heat from the front. Turn the piece over and press it from the reverse side, face down on a clean, padded towel. If the embroidery includes metallic or goldwork thread, lower the iron’s heat setting before pressing and test on a hidden area first; metallic threads can tarnish, discolor, or melt under the same high heat that plain linen tolerates well. The padding gives the raised threads somewhere to sink into instead of being crushed flat, and pressing from behind keeps the iron off the embroidery itself entirely.

Never Fold or Store Linen While Damp

However good the press looks, don’t fold or put away any linen that isn’t completely dry. Trapped moisture is enough to ruin fine linen even when the linen itself was cared for correctly right up until that last step. Ecclesiastical Sewing has told the story before of a set of purificators tucked into sealed zip-top bags instead of being laundered and stored properly. They came back mildewed and had to be replaced. Read the full account in To the Rescue in the Sacristy, and let it stand as a reason to launder linens promptly and let them finish drying completely before they’re folded away, rather than setting them aside for later.

Frequently Asked Questions

How soon after use should altar linens be laundered?

As soon as it’s reasonably possible. Setting soiled or damp linens aside, even in a drawer or a sealed bag, gives mildew and set-in stains time to take hold. Prompt laundering is one of the biggest factors in how long fine altar linen lasts.

Can I use starch or a spray sizing on altar linens?

Yes. A light spray sizing such as Best Press is commonly used to restore crispness, particularly when the linen has fully dried before pressing. It’s a supply generally found at fabric and quilting shops rather than something Ecclesiastical Sewing carries directly.

What if I don’t have time to press a linen right after washing?

Let it finish air-drying somewhere with good air circulation rather than sealing it away damp. A linen that’s fully dry can wait for pressing without harm. A linen that’s damp and shut into a drawer or bag cannot, that’s exactly the situation that leads to mildew.

How do I press linens with lace or embroidery without damaging the trim?

Press raised embroidery face down on a padded towel from the reverse side, as described above. Lace generally does best with a lighter touch and lower heat directly on the trim itself. Part 3 of this series, How to Attach Lace to Church Linens, covers lace-specific care in more detail.

Continue the Series

This post is Part 4 of The Complete Guide to Church Linen. The other installments cover:

• Part 1: How to Preshrink Linen Before Cutting and Sewing
• Part 2: Choosing the Right Thread for Hand-Hemming Church Linens
• Part 3: How to Attach Lace to Church Linens
• Part 4: Laundering and Pressing Finished Church Linens (this post)
• Part 5: Removing Wine, Blood, and Wax Stains from Church Linens

For the full picture, read our foundational guide, 5 Lessons Every Seamstress Should Learn from Sewing Altar Linens. And when it’s time to replace or add to your altar linens, Ecclesiastical Sewing’s Church Linen Fabric by the Yard collection carries the pure Irish linen and European weaves trusted by 22,737 makers who sew for their own parishes and religious communities.