Advice For Cleaning Antique Linens (Products that can be shipped to Canada)

Hi! I'm looking for some advice for cleaning antique linen dresses. Typical staining with antique linens, yellowing, etc.

I have read great things about "Engleside restoration fabric restorer", I have looked everywhere, but I can not find anywhere online that will ship it to Canada.

I have also read that "retro clean" is good for this purpose. I almost bought it, but after reading some of the amazon reviews, I wanted to see what all my options were.

Are there other products you might recommend? Any homemade cleaners I could make that you would recommend?

Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

 

I use Orvus (marketed both as quilt soap and dog wash) and sometimes Oxylean.

 

Thanks for your reply! I sometimes use oxyclean also, but I wasn't sure if it might be too harsh for antique linen.
I haven't heard of orvus, I'll check that out, thanks!

 

I like the Orvus, which is very gentle and neutral. Sometimes I mix the two in the water, and the orvus seems to lift the oxyclean out.

 

Interesting, thanks for the tip! Unfortunately, I'm not sure that Orvus is available to be shipped to Canada, I'll keep searching tho!

 

Can you edit your title with your location? Then our Canadian members may see your post.

 

Changed the title, hope that the way I worded it is ok! Thanks so much!

 

Oh it looks like the WA paste is the same company as the orvus cleaner 'pastperfect2' had mentioned. It's unavailable from amazon to Canada at the moment, I'll keep checking out other sites that carry it, thanks! c:

 

Hello! I am new to the vintage guild, but read a lot of your comments on previous forums. I would love your advice on a cleaning question. I purchased a beautiful lace/cotton white Edwardian gown for my wedding. I worked with a woman in Alameda (I live in San Francisco) who does excellent restoration work to have it cleaned, pressed, and added a belt to it for my wedding. I recently wore it to my wedding, but I only had it on for about 4 hours, then changed into another dress for the party, as this one is far too delicate and has a long train (see attached photo). I am now back home and want to clean and store it. I inquired with the woman about doing this, but she wanted to charge me $500+ and I've already spent a fortune with her on this dress. I'm just really not in a position to do that now, but I want to preserve this beautiful garment.

From my own online research and a phone call with Lacis Lace Museum in Berkeley, I was told that the best thing to do would be:
1) Remove any metal
2) Soak it for 24 hours in lukewarm water. They said SF tap water is fine, but perhaps distilled would be safer.
3) Remove it from the water and lay it flat on a bunch of towels until it dries
4) Carefully fold it in acid free tissue paper in an acid free box and store

The dress has incredible lace details, and ruffles running all down the front. I can send more detailed photos if that helps. The one I am attaching was taken at our ceremony.

I also saw online that you should put acid free tissue between all the folds? I will definitely need to fold it a few times to fit into a box, as the train is quite long.

I would really appreciate your feedback for this process. Thank you so much!

 

WA paste and Orvus are both museum-approved mild PH balanced soaps. To be perfectly honest, you are paying a lot of money for those products and neither are any harsher than a liquid dish soap. I use Sunlight or Palmolive - they are mild, PH balanced and damn good grease cutters. If you are wanting to bleach your linens, Oxyclean is good but you have to rinse and rinse and rinse, or it will ultimately yellow the fabric. Oxyclean is peroxide based, so use it sparingly. I always recommend when cleaning anything, start by vacuuming the piece, and a damp cloth surface wipe (you would be surprised how many times 'stains' disappear with these two cleaning methods. If its unprinted cotton or linen, then a cold water soak is good. If that doesn't work, try a hot water soak (both times let soak for no more than a couple of hours at most unless you remove all metal bits like hooks and eyes, because they could rust.) Then go to soap. If that doesn't work, then try oxyclean, followed by another wash with soap to make sure you have removed all Oxyclean residue. Distilled water is best, especially for the final rinse, but if you live in a soft water zone, you can use tap water. Don't use chlorine bleach if you can help it. As for all these products that don't ship to Canada. I don't know what they are - they could just be expensive versions of what we already have, or something really bad for the environment. The rule of thumb is always start with the least and work your way up. No point in hitting a dingy hanky with nuclear cleaner!

 

Excellent information, Jonathan. Who knew we were paying for products we didnt need

 

Hi, Johnathan! Thanks so much for the information! I will definitely try this, and I feel reassured now with using a simple cleaner like dish soap, I already use dish soap for some of my hand washing! Thanks !!!!

 

I got my Orvus in the 5 gallon "Dog wash" size container at 50% off becuase they were discontinuing it at the pet store. It's a lifetime supply! But I do alot of washing.
Acid free paper for packing is good. You can also use cotton sheeting or muslin (thoroughly washed to remove any sizing or dye). You could use old white sheets from the thrift store after washing several times. You do want the storage box to be acid free as well.

 

I use it too, Victoria, but I believe she said it doesnt ship to Canada. I have had incredible results with Victorian whites

 

Thank you so much!