2 August 2026
Who writes Starsteam Textile Notes, and how are the figures checked?
Starsteam Textile Notes publishes short articles on four fabrics people live with: wool upholstery, pale linen, wool rugs and curtain cloth, with the conditions attached to every method.
Most fabric advice online exists to sell a product, so the advice stops at the verb and skips the conditions. A cleaning method is only usable with its water temperature in degrees Celsius, its dwell time in minutes, its pH ceiling and its drying window. Starsteam publishes those four conditions on every method and names no brands.
How is every method on Starsteam Textile Notes tested before publication?
Starsteam Textile Notes runs every published method on real cloth first, usually on offcuts from the same roll as the finished item. Test pieces are soiled deliberately, treated by the described sequence, dried, then compared against an untreated control under the same light. Methods leaving a visible difference at 1 metre do not get published.
Comparison happens at a fixed distance and a fixed light level, because a treated patch that disappears at 1 metre can still be obvious at 30 centimetres under a raking beam. The 1 metre and 30 centimetre results both get recorded, and an article names the viewing distance whenever a method leaves any residual difference.
Where do the numbers in Starsteam Textile Notes come from?
Numbers in Starsteam Textile Notes come from three sources: workshop measurement, published textile testing standards such as BS EN ISO 12947 for Martindale abrasion and BS EN ISO 105-B02 for light fastness, and manufacturer technical sheets. Figures that vary by construction appear as a range rather than a single value.
| Source | Example figure used on this site | Unit | How the figure is checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workshop measurement | Drying time for a treated linen patch under a fan at 30 centimetres | Minutes | Timed on at least three test pieces, reported as the slowest result |
| Published testing standard | Martindale abrasion bands for upholstery, blue wool light fastness 1 to 8 | Rub cycles, scale points | Quoted against the standard number, never rounded up into a higher band |
| Manufacturer technical sheet | Lining weights of 130 to 300 grams per square metre by lining type | Grams per square metre | Cross checked against at least two mills before a range is published |
| Fibre property literature | Wool swelling of 16 percent in diameter when wet | Percent | Published as a range where sources disagree, with the wider range preferred |
A figure that cannot be traced to one of those four sources does not appear on the site. Where a range is published rather than a single number, the range reflects real variation between constructions, not uncertainty about the measurement.
What does Starsteam Textile Notes leave out?
Starsteam Textile Notes publishes no brand recommendations and carries no affiliate links. Starsteam publishes no method involving chlorine bleach on a natural fibre, because chlorine breaks the cellulose chain in flax and cotton and dissolves the cuticle on wool. Historic and museum textiles fall outside the site.
- Brand recommendations, product rankings and affiliate links.
- Any method putting chlorine bleach on wool, flax, cotton or silk.
- Fabrics nobody can test at home, including historic textiles and museum pieces.
- Any figure quoted from a source Starsteam cannot name.
How are corrections to Starsteam Textile Notes handled?
Every Starsteam Textile Notes article carries a review date in the left margin. A correction adds a new review date and a short note in the body rather than a silent edit. A reader whose own testing contradicts a published figure can write in, and the disputed number gets retested before any change goes live.
Retesting takes 2 to 6 weeks where a drying or fading result has to be observed over time, so a correction is rarely instant. An article under active dispute keeps the original figure in place with the dispute noted, because removing a number leaves a reader with nothing to work from.