Originally Posted by ghostrider
I think completing the tops made by your mother is a fine idea if that is what you want to do. My caution was about the silk one only. Silks of that period will not hold up to any kind of use at all. They were colored and treated with metals with no thought given to archival properties. At it's best, silk is a delicate fiber when new. Yours is 130 years old.
Good point on dyes. One example is "Paris Green". The color was made with arsenic as a component. Would you want future babies sucking on that? At some point, it has crossed over from a utilitarian piece to an object of art, still beautiful, just evolved.