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Regards,

Deirdre
eBay Community Development

Hello and welcome to the eBay workshop for “Cleaning & Caring For Vintage Textiles”

I will be posting lots of information today and several methods will have multiple posts. Please feel free to post your questions for each topic as we are discussing it. At the end we can go back and re-discuss any specific area.

I will be discussing the cleaning and care of vintage household textiles. Any textiles that are pre 1930 is considered antique and should be treated by professional textile experts. I have used the following methods on Victorian & Edwardian whites without any problem, but I do want to caution you that the older the fabric the more care you must take. Textiles degrade faster then any other collectible or antique!

You can find perfectly preserved antique textiles, but that is because they were treated with care over the decades. Or, accidentally they did not encounter any of the serious preservation taboos.

What I want to stress is that there are many different ways of doing the same thing. I am only explaining what has worked well for me with the products that I can easily obtain in my area. In my discussions over the past year with other linen specialists, I have discovered that many of them have strong feelings for their own methods.

There will be warnings and cautions peppered throughout every post, be sure and heed them, as they are important.

Here is the outline I will be using to post by:

• Introduction


• Getting Started - The 1st thing that you should do!


• What Kind of stain is it?


• Out, Out Darn Spot!


• Dye runs or bleeds


• The Sun Can Be Your Friend!


• Washing, Drying & Ironing


• Protecting for long and short term storing

If you would like to print off a copy of the outline to refer to here is a link to an .rtf document that will open in a new window and you can print it off.

eBay Workshop Outline

Getting Started: The 1st thing you should do!



Your first impulse is going to be to throw your vintage textile into your washer and then your dryer. Don’t do it! This is one of the worst things you can do to any vintage textile.

The textile’s fibers may be too weak to tolerate the agitation, and the dryer will only help to further set any stains. In addition, the heat from the dryer may speed up cellulose degradation in the fibers.

Cotton and linen are natural fibers, so before working on them you need to re-hydrate the fibers. The safest way to do this is to soak the item in cool to room temperature water and a mild soap like Woolite. It needs to soak for at least ½ hour, but longer won’t hurt anything. (Do not do this in the washing machine!)

If you are working with a printed textile that is very bright and has possibly never been washed, you need to check out a few things before you do a first soaking.
There may be a problem with the dyes in pre-1935 tablecloths, because the dyes used back then were not that stable, and any excess dye will bleed off in the initial washing. If you are unsure of the age of your printed tablecloth, wet a white cotton rag and dab at the various dye colors to see if any color is transferred.

When the initial soak is finished, check the water for dye runs! Remove the piece from the water and do not wring or twist. Run cool to room temp rinse water over it, patting it and gently kneading it to get the water out. Do not use a twisting and turning motion! Keep running water and patting it until the water runs clear. Leave the item in the sink to finish draining the water out. Then hold the item up to a strong light (more about that later) and check for dye streaks. (I will be discussing dye runs throughout the entire thread and will post exactly how to remove them later on.)

Do not dry the item until you have finished the entire process! The next step is to check for stains.

Before starting on any stain removal you need to identify the type of fabric. The majority of my methods will not work on SILK!! I do not work with silk very often so I really don’t know a whole lot of about removing stains from it. You should take any silk items to a very good dry cleaner and get their help.

Most of the fabrics I work with are cotton, cotton/rayon blends & and linen. Any other fiber is pretty much outside of my experiences. Some of the stain removal tips may work on other fibers, but I’m not sure. That is why your practice pieces are important.

If you are totally unfamiliar with fabric types, hang out at your local fabric stores. Go around and read the bolt fabric contents and finger the fabrics as well as study the weaves. It would be a good idea to purchase a small piece and write down the info that is on the end of the bolts. Fabric contents have changed over the years, but once you have put together a fabric book it will help you identify content. Fingering these fabrics will help educate your fingers.

Rust spots are one of the most damaging stains to fibers. Rust spots are small brown spots or brownish rings or speckles.

There are two kinds of rust spots. The first kind are real rust spots, the kind that are caused when the fabric has come in contact with a metal object and there is moisture around or in the air. Even high humidity will be enough moisture to cause rust to occur.

The other kind of “rust” is the specked brown spots that can be caused by improper storage. For generations women have been calling these speckled brown spots, “rust”. That kind will come out with OxiClean unless the spots have sat too long in the fabric and cellulose degradation has started.

If the rust spots have set in for a long time, they may result in a hole when you try to remove them. But if you do nothing with them, they will eventually leave a hole, so you’re better off trying to rid the fabric of the rust stains. The good news is that the rust removal products won’t cause any further damage if it isn’t rust. I prefer Carbona Rust Remover as I have found that it works the fastest and most efficiently. Recently Carbona has become more difficult for me to get in my town. Wal*Mart use to sell it but they have now discontinued it. The Carbona Website has a location finder listing resellers by town. An Alternative method is with didi seven & lemon juice.

If your spot doesn’t come out with either treatment, it might be cellulose degradation that is causing the spotting. If it is cellulose degradation, nothing will take it out as the fibers are rotting away.

Paint drips. If the paint is water base, you will be able to remove all trace of it with a lot of perseverance. If it is an oil base paint, you will not be able to remove the oil spot that will remain. I have tried a number of different products and as of yet not been able to come up with anything. But I keep trying. The best products for water based paint removal are Oops or Goof Off. Use the spotting method described in a future post.

Ink. Some ink spots will come out with didi seven. Justmama has recommended the use of a product called “Eradicator” that can be found in a good calligraphy supply store. I have not been able to locate this product to test it out. This product is supposed to get out permanent markers and other more difficult ink stains. Use the spotting method described in a later post. If you have a ball point pen mark, didi seven will work.

Mystery black spots and streaks. For reasons I haven’t been able to discover, some linens will have black spots and/or streaks on them. In a few cases I’ve been able to get them out with didi seven. Otherwise, I’ve yet to discover the correct treatment. But I haven’t given up. I now believe that they might be silver nitrate stains. One of the ways for this stain to occur is that silver nitrate is in some cleaning products. I am still researching the exact causes and how to fix the problem. I will post the info on ebay’s Needle Arts & Vintage Textile Forum when I find a solution.

Melted Candy, Gum, Oil and Tar. On the hottest day of the summer, a couple of years ago, I attended an outside auction. I stayed all day just to buy some vintage clothes. When I got home and started inspecting my treasures I discovered that one of the coats had melted candy all over the pocket. I quickly turned it wrong side out and stuck the pocket in Lestoil and let it soak per the directions on the bottle. Within minutes there wasn’t a trace of that candy left. I haven’t had a need to test Lestoil any further, but it is well worthwhile to have some on hand just in case you might need it.

Anita, where do you get your Didi Seven at? I can't find it anywhere here in Maine....