Good day - was mother-in-laws who was from Germany and Russia (born 1918). I may be posting in wrong place as it's not really fashion, so if I am, my apologies. She has several duvet covers, but I don't know what they are called for a large pillow size? The buttons are cool (you all may have seen before!) but sharing none-the-less! anyone know when or where these may have been popular? I believe they are around 20"x 20" (or is that 24x24... ug - packed my tape measure...).
They are pillow shams - covers for European size 20" x 20" pillows that are used decoratively on beds. They are beautiful and still used today.
I think they are lovely as well! I don't know how to clean them, but maybe can find someone. There are some stains on 2 of 3 of them that seem like they won't come out! Thank you all so much....I really appreciate it!
The shams are washable so depending on where you live, Sheryl, there are products you can soak them in before washing to try to remove the stains. If you live in the US, there is a product called "Restoration" that is available on Amazon. I have had some luck with it but it's not easy to get stains out of antique fabrics! You can also try to hang them out in the sun once you have soaked them. Others, may have other products to recommend. Good luck!
I've never tried Orvis, Claire. Perhaps others who have can comment on which they prefer. I like Restoration better than Ocyclean.
I've seen similar pillow covers. Very common for Poland. Featherbed pillow would be pink, and you could see it through the lace. Also it was common for parents to give their daughter new bedding when she was getting married. People kept them for decades. To me to sleep on huge square pillows filled with geese feather is a very country side traditional thing. I'm posting images of Zofia Rydet - famous Polish photographer. Images are from 1982, you can see similar pillows.
In general, these were/are not used to sleep on but decoratively in front of the "sleeping on " pillows. If the pillows were filled with down, there might be a zipped (or buttoned) plain case that covered the down pillow. You would put the lace covered sham over it.
never seen a zipper on a traditional pillow case/bedding cases, people obsessively used starch on them, and mangled them, they were stiff like paper. Can't be good for a zipper. My grandmothers did that, and my mother does too actually, she even uses starch on kitchen rags. *You make the starch yourself and soak the linens and covers, after they are dry two people stretch them out (loved it as a kid, it's a technique!), and then you give it to people who mangle them. I have no idea if people outside of Europe do that too.
Just be careful of the buttons, as often that is lead underneath and might cause a problem when washed. It might be best to remove and sew them back on.
Orvus and restoration are different products. Orvus is a ph neutral detergent. Restoration is sodium percarbonate and sodium carbonate, like oxiclean. You can get generic percarbonate for much less. Got grease and dirt? Orvus is gentler and a good starting point. Yellowing? Percarbonate is the next stage. Stubborn rust? Whink (hydrofluoric acid) is the next in your arsenal. But be careful it's wicked strong stuff and do not get it on your hands.
There’s a lot of great information in this thread, and thanks to OP for starting it off! @Katarzyna love the photographs you posted. Are you located in Eastern Europe? And your references to starching and mangling reminded me of my German-American grandmother and her laundry techniques circa 1950s. We were a midwestern farm family, and a lot of things were done the “old” way. My mom had an old fashioned washing machine with a hand wringer, but I don’t remember hand mangling. I did a bit of searching and found a blog post that helped me visualize it better. I use Orvus for hand washing, Awesome spray for pre-wash on stains, and Oxiclean for soaking stains, but am not familiar with Restoration. Would love to hear perspective from users on advantages over Oxiclean. Is it chemically similar?
I like Restoration way better than Orvus or Oxiclean. I would have to check the actual chemicals but I find Restoration cleans a lot better than Orvus and is much gentler on fabrics than Oxiclean.
