Date of Award

1-1-2022

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design

Department

Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design

First Advisor

Louis Kirschenbaum

Abstract

When seeking information on how to clean away mold from clothing and textiles, searching the internet can lead to an overwhelming amount of confusing and vague information. A lack of reputable references and consistent measurements across methodologies makes attempting to clean textiles, valuable or not, potentially damaging to the textile itself. As such, the objective of this experiment was to select a handful of these cleaning methods and test them with the expectation that the results will contribute to reliable information on what methods could possibly work for certain textiles. It is the hope that this information will be made accessible to the public by means of publication so that anyone may benefit from it. This testing was done by inoculating select textile substrates with live fungi, then cleaning those textiles using the selected internet-found cleaning methods. Additional procedures were adapted from The American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists’ Technical Manual, such as the evaluation of results using AATCC Gray Scale tools and AATCC methodologies established to grow mold on textiles. This combination of internet homebrew laundry methods and testing routines developed by scientists resulted in an array of samples that ranged in their color, texture, smell, and size. The methods that yielded the most pleasing results included using substances like bleach, hydrogen peroxide, rubbing alcohol, and lemon juice.

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