Care Cleaning And Storage Of Vintage Linens

Most linens are precious to us in many ways. They are passed on from generation to generation over time. With careful cleaning and proper storing, vintage linens can be preserved to last for a very long time.

There are a number of ways to revitalize linens and bring out the beauty of them in spite of some of the wear and stain damages over time. Old linens were made a lot stronger than today's linens and have stood the test of time, over the years with a great deal of wear and tear. I have added a few cleaning methods I have used in the past, that might be useful to you.

Cleaning Methods
Washing machines may damage your linens, and if trying to remove stains, soaking and hand washing has proven a more effective method to use when cleaning vintage linens.

Soaking linens will require a bucket or safe place where your linens can remain soaking for awhile. Sometimes linens are soaked for hours up to several days and you will need a place where they can safely soak for that long period of time.

You can stir linens carefully, but it is best not to attempt to rub out the stains, as that can cause damage to the fibers of the linens.

Rinsing linens thoroughly is very important so that there is no residue left of any of the chemicals from harsh detergents. It is best to rinse linens in warm water. Last, always test a small spot on the linen when using a cleaning agent.

We can not guarantee these methods will work, and we highly suggest reading all the directions on the products prior to using them and to do a test blotch prior using a product. These methods are merely suggestions that have been tried by others.

Drying Linens When drying linens, the sun dry method is often used when possible. One thing to remember is not to squeeze linens, but to pat them dry and lay them flat on a dry towel or hang on a clean clothes line in the sun and let them dry naturally.

OxiClean
This is a nice cleaner that has been known to remove many stains. It comes in a powder and needs to be dissolved in very hot water. I have heard many positive results from the use of OxiClean. Some people will let their linens soak overnight in OxiClean in warm water, once the original powder is dissolved. If the stains are not completely, gone, you can also put linens out to dry in natural sunlight which acts as a bleaching agent.

OxiClean is sodium per-carbonate which is an oxygen bleach. When you add water to the powder it activates it and it will stay active for 6 hours or so. It can not be used for all linens, especially Damask. OxiClean is good, and used a great deal to remove stubborn stains, however if you can get your hands on a product called Restoration is is better, but a bit harder to find and more expensive than OxiClean.

Restoration
Restoration can be mixed with white vinegar when soaking linens. This product is known to remove storage and label stains, age spots, odors, and more. it doesn't work the best with rust removal, however there are other products that work well with rust stains.

Whink Rust Removal is one good rust removal product that can be used on linens.

Lemon Juice And Salt
This is a all natural process that has been effective for stubborn stains. Soak your linens in hot water and lemon juice and add salt to the specific stain areas. Let soak overnight and hang in the sunlight on a flat dry towel. When using this method, try not to rub the salts into the fabric as the rubbing may cause fiber damages to these fragile and often delicate pieces.
This method has been very useful in removing rust stains as well.

Fels Naptha Soap Flakes
If you can find Fels Soap, it can be grated and shaved into smaller pieces and placed in a plastic bucket or dish pan in hot or warm water. Let the linens soak overnight.

Sun bleach
I often use the fantastic effects of the sun to pull the stains out of my linens. I have experienced wonderful success using this method on a multitude of tough stains and delicate fabrics and I highly recommend this method of using the natural sun to bleach out the stains from your fabrics and vintage linens, when ever you possible can.

Storing Linens
The best way I can suggest to store vintage linens over time is to roll them in an acid free tissue paper or cotton and store them in a clean dry plastic tub away from direct sunlight and other moist areas like damp basements. Sealed containers will usually keep the bugs or moths away as all. Try to store your linens without starch or other cleaning chemicals or deodorants as some of those will cause staining and attract moths, who will damage them.
Linens are often folded when stored, folds and creases can cause some breakdown in the fibers, as well as create folded stains or marks. if your storing your linens for a long period of time, it might be a good idea to switch the folds to avoid this. It is best to roll vintage linens and store in a plastic container that you may be able to pick up at a Walmart store.

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