caring for crochet pieces

[espap]

I have unerthed some lovely big crochet pieces my mother/grandmothe have made. The edges are a bit yellow. I want to wash them. What's the best way? Will the yellowing go? Do I need to starch them after every wash?

 

Thanks

 

Esther

[LadyyOftheOak]

Having worked on some very old thread crochet pieces as restoration and repair projects I know this old thread can get very fragile. I would not wash it in the traditional way at all or use any type of bleach or harsh detergent on it!!

 

The older pieces I did were somewhere around 75 to 100 years old and it was well fun to work on them.. what I did however was tea dye the thread to repair it with to match instead of trying to whiten them as cotton naturally yellows with age. Definitely do not use bleach however I would imagine it would be far too strong?

 

You *might* be able to use something like a lemon/water mix and spritz it and then leave it in the sunlight for a couple of hours to see if it lightens it any. I wouldn't use it too strong however and definitely try a very small place first to see if it works.

 

As far as washing, I'd use something very mild like woolite and cold water and gently hand wash it and then lay it out flat to dry. Depending on the age I'd either starch it or I'd put it in an acid free mat and frame it if I wanted to keep it nice for display. That's what I did with the old pieces I've worked on that were family heirlooms.

 

I am interested to see if anyone else had tried to lighten an old doily though and what they used to whiten it without damaging the thread?

[Becks]

In our family we have a beautiful Christening gown and matching blanket which gets handed down to the eldest of the family, but which is passed around to all the members who want to use it - as long as the eldest gets it back! .

 

I'm not sure if it's knitted or crocheted. It's absolutely gorgeous.

 

ANYWAY, whenever we wanted to use it, we always brought it over to my grandma from the 'other' side of the family, (not the side which passes the gown on down,) so she could clean it. She always used a bluing product called Mrs Stewart's bluing. Here's a link I found to the product..........http://www.mrsstewart.com/

 

We'd always get it back perfectly clean and ready to go. Now I have bought this once before to use myself, and it is truly a blue color. I was so frightened of using it, (because it was blue), that I never had the guts to try it. (I would just die if something I wanted to whiten actually became stained blue!!! )

 

Anyway, grandma is gone now, and the kids in my family are all grown, but my two neices are expecting babies early next year. My sister has the gown, so it will be interesting how she decides to wash it. I'll have to ask her.

 

Sorry to have babbled on. I don't know if any of you have used bluing before. I would be interested in your experiances. I wish I had stayed to watch grandma wash the items so I could see how it was done.

[dixieredhead]

I dont know about lightening it either. I have a very old piece my great great aunt made with size 30 thread. the rose of erin doily. it is tattered in a few places, that is easily repairable with sewing thread and time. I did tea dye it to achieve a uniform color. i wonder if the lemon juice would be to acidic and eat away at the fiber?

 

I would say if tea dying is an option to try that. and wash gently by hand with woolite in cold water, roll in towel , do not wring it out. and gently pin to styrofoam or cardboard and let air dry. i would not starch it. also if possible frame that puppy and display it that way as to not get damaged.

 

good luck! let us know what you do!

[goldi316]

ANYWAY, whenever we wanted to use it, we always brought it over to my grandma from the 'other' side of the family, (not the side which passes the gown on down,) so she could clean it. She always used a bluing product called Mrs Stewart's bluing. Here's a link I found to the product..........http://www.mrsstewart.com/

 

We'd always get it back perfectly clean and ready to go. Now I have bought this once before to use myself, and it is truly a blue color. I was so frightened of using it, (because it was blue), that I never had the guts to try it. (I would just die if something I wanted to whiten actually became stained blue!!! )

 

I would imagine there would be instructions on the bottle. If you've got an old white blouse or t-shirt, I would suggest trying it out on that to see how it works. Even better is to have two - wash one with the blueing and one without, and compare them to see the difference. White socks are another potential test object. The stuff can really be amazing in how it perks up white stuff that has yellowed. Just make sure to follow the diluting instructions carefully and you shouldn't have any problems with blue staining.

 

That set sounds lovely, any pictures by any chance? Same with the pieces that are the subject of this thread - I love to see heirloom stuff!

[LadyyOftheOak]

We use bluing on white horses tails.. now this may not seem relevant but when you've invested several thousand dollars into a show horse and training, taking them to the shows etc.. you do NOT want a blue tail! A little of this stuff goes a long long ways... but if you mix it appropriately it works wonders. A few drops to a 5 gallon bucket is what we use but I'm sure there are instructions on the bottle as well

 

Experiment on an old t-shirt until you get the mixture just right though

[Wombat]

When I was a kid, my mother used to boil the (always white) sheets and other white garments in a copper and rinse by hand. She always used a blue bag (a lump of solid blue stuff tied in a muslin bag) in the final rinse water, just squishing the bag around in the water - until it looked blue enough, I suppose.

 

These bluebags are no longer available (at least in Australia) but liquid blue is. I've had a few momentary lapses with this - a little does go a long way. But it is really only a water soluble non-permanent dye. If the article comes out too blue, just rinse in clear water to remove the excess before drying.

 

"Blue" is the original "optical brightener". The bluebags were made from a mixture of synthetic ultramarine pigment (as used in paint) and sodium bicarbonate. It doesn't bleach or permanently alter the white - that hint of blue just makes the white look whiter. There's a scientific explanation for this - the particular shade of blue absorbs UV light and reflects visible light (or something like that).

 

Blue bags were also applied to bee and wasp stings and gave instant relief - must have been the sodium bicarbonate.