Advice - stained old linens
 

In cleaning out my Mom's belongings I found a box with old pillowcases and old store bought aprons. Some of the aprons had paper store price tags attached with straight pins. Based on the location of the store, I think these items may have been given to my Mom by my grandmother who died in the early 1960's.

Some of the pillowcases are badly stained with age related dots. They feel brand new and unwashed. I think it's possible my grandmother made them with "pillowcase fabric", the kind with the edge printed on it. Some of the brand new (with tags) aprons also have stains, brownish yellowish ones. Some are unscathed.

I've washed the pillowcases and one of the aprons. The stains did not come out. I am line drying them.

I have no immediate need for any of this so I'm tempted to just put them in my attic for another day. Will this cause the stains to set any further? I'd rather not go to great lengths to clean them right now. I'd rather wait until I need to use them, if I ever do...

Thanks.

Here's some pics for those who like vintage. The blue bordered pillowcase is not bad, the one that's mostly white has those bad lines on it and the gorgeous blue and pink one is a mess.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]525528[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]525529[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]525530[/ATTACH]

Hi Kenmore gal,
Google cleaning stained old linens. There is a few sites with helpful information on cleaning these. I would think that you might make a mistake by leaving the stains in and having them eat up your treasures.

I am so sorry to hear of your mom's passing. It is a very hard thing to handle. I hope you are taking good care of yourself and have many friends to help you though it.

To be honest with you, I owned a white damask tablecloth that I never used. One day I pulled it out and it had all yellow stains on it. At that time I googled how to remove them and was overwhelmed with the scope of the task. I got rid of the tablecloth instead. I'm hoping someone on this board can personally recommend a quick and easy fix that worked for them, if such a thing exists.

I too, have a treasure of pillow cases that are stained with age... So will be watching to see what you come up with to remove the age spots....

Try using ZOUT you can find it in the laundry aisle. Not every store carries it. I like the foaming one best. Try it on a couple first

Did it actually work for you Terry??

Try soaking them in the bath tub with retro clean ( you can find it in quilt stores or on line). It may take 4 or 5 days of soaking to do the job. I've had great results with antique quilt tops. Do NOT use bleach...or the fabric may crumble.

Thanks Francie.

Let me re-ask a question though. At this point I have no use for these items but of course I don't want to discard them either. I am a bit time pressed right now. If I washed them and put them in my attic (still stained) will my job of cleaning them be harder in the future? In other words, will further storage cause further staining?

Rather than just wash, I would recommend using RetroClean. Cindy Needham (Wholecloth Linen Quilts book) recommends this very highly. You may be amazed at how good they look, and may find a use for them. Cindy makes beautiful quilts from them.

I would make sure they are stain free before putting them away again.

I am in no way affiliated, but Amway used to have a laundry booster with the word White in the name. Sorry I realize that is not much help. I just looked at the Amway site and it is no longer listed. It may have been a version of Oxyclean.

Anyways, I used it to wash old linens with brown stains very successfully.

As they are unusable as they are why not try washing with bleach and see what happens. The dyes of that era held up to bleach very well usually. But, of course, no guarantees but, as I said, they are not usable as is now.

I got antsy. I don't like all the aprons equally so I picked one I didn't like much and I have it soaking now in Oxy. Basically I chose that because I already had it in the house! I'll let you guys know.

Edited to add - I checked on the apron. I rinsed the apron in my washer, spun it out and examined it. So far the stain is still there, it may be lighter, it's hard to tell. I've put it back into a new batch of oxy for overnight at least.

I had a few, very old stained, family linens, and I read on the internet how to get stains out, after trying with regular washing machine methods that didn't work.

Boil water and pour boiling water over the pillow cases, so that they are not soaking in the water, but rather the water is actually migrating through the fabric. This "weakens" the stain. I was using on white linens, so I mixed 2 Tbsp bleach with about 2 cups boiling water, and poured it through the linens. The stain disappeared before my eyes. I then rinsed the linens very well to make sure there was no residue of bleach, and re-laundered. I couldn't have been more happy.

There is a product from Amway called All Fabric Bleach that is excellent. I would try that first, since you are working with color fabrics. They also have a prewash stain remover that is also excellent. I am not affiliated in any way with Amway, I'm just a long time happy customer.

Good luck with your dilemma and let us know what finally works for you.

Have you tried washing them and laying them out on green grass? That's how my grandmother got stains out of her whites..

I washed them and line dried them in the sun.....do you suppose that's equal? Or maybe laying them on the grass exposes them to even more sunlight? IDK. I do know sometimes I lay sweaters out back on a flat drying screen and I have to be so careful they don't blow away in the wind! I'd be even more concerned with linens.

Biz is so much better than Oxy products. I had switched when the Oxys came out, but I'm back to Biz. I don't know if it will take out those stains, but it's worth a try. "Stanley" had a stain remover that took tar stains out of a patio door curtain. I was at the party and watched it happen. The curtain was in the hostess's house, and the dealer tried her stain remover on it. It worked. Of course tar is not like your stains.

Thanks. I did a quick search and my local walmart sells Biz.

I personally feel that if you put the items back in the attic as is the staining will get worse. I've had good luck with retroclean.
Will be waiting to see what you find works best.

Throw them in the washer with some Oxiclean and Dawn, if they survive, they are good to go.

I have a very old linen tablecloth that was gift from a very dear friend when I left Texas. She had no idea how to get the yellowing out, and neither do I so I will be watching this thread in the hopes of salvaging it. ( when she gifted it, in 2006, her grand daughter was (or had just been, I can't remember which...) the governor of Louisiana. She gifted it because she knew my kitchen is decorated in Strawberries, and it has bouquets of strawberries on it. It would s one of my treasures.

I agree with dunster, and there is another restoratiive wash you can use. Dang, can't think of the name, but you should be able to get it at you LQS

I AGREE with Retro Clean...Used it for a lot of vintage linens and had great results on most stains of all kinds.

I used Resolve stain remover on an old linen napkin. I let it set longer than the 30 seconds. Left it about 5 minutes, threw into a washer with my white under garments. Looked great.

If can't fix it, feature it and tie dye with tea. :)

Get you some oxiclean and make a solution with it, much stronger than what they call for. I make a solution that almost resembles a syrup and put the linens or whatever has those brownish stains on them and soak them for at least twenty four hours in a bucket of the solution. Then pour the solution in your washing machine, add another scoop of oxiclean some soap (not too much) and wash and rinse at least twice and see if that doesn't pretty well take care of the stains. I have removed stains from old linens for several people as well as myself this way. Good luck

themachinelady

I have some old lace that my grandmother made and was stored in my mom's basement. They were a kind of grey color. I used retro clean and I was amazed at the difference in the color. They also had some rust on them--gone after a good soak. I think you should try to remove the stains before storing them again. The fabric might disintegrate if you don't. One day you might get a wonderful idea and want to use them.
Sue

Thanks for all the advice, lots of things to try. I will let you all know what works in the end.

I agree Susie that one day I may want to use these linens and I'd hate to make them even worse.

here's a tip a lady friend told me years ago, - wash in gentle cycle ,then hang out on the line on a night that has a full moon. an old wives tale that might work- can't say I've ever tried it, might be worth a "shot in the dark" .She sewed and quilted a lot and pricked her fingers a lot (was very elderly) and said this is how she would get the blood out of the fabrics.

Your saliva will remove your blood easily. No need to wait on the moon! lol

I recently found a twin size quilt in a 2nd hand store. It was loaded with all kinds of yellowish like water stains. I sprayed the worst of them with Shout Then I poured a cup of Shout into the washer and soaked it over night. I air dried it and it had 2 area's on the end that I had to Shout a second time. No more spots. I am not a fan of pink but this is a hand stitched quilt of pastel pink flowers on a white field-the center is a single Wedding Ring and in the middle of the ring and all around it is Fans in alternating directions. And the the hem is scalloped and now I have this very adorable little quilt

Ok, fellow linen lovers. I soaked the stained apron in oxy for 2 days. Today I rinsed it, ran it through the washer and hung it on the line. It was not a very sunny day but there was some sun. Voila - the stains are gone!!

I'll try some of the pillow cases next. I'll let you know in 2 days I guess.

Oxyclean is really good for soaking old linens.

Success!!! I soaked 6 pillowcases for 2 days. The 4 that were lightly stained came out fine. The 2 that were heavily stained still have some markings. I've hung them in the sunshine and I'll let you know later if that does the trick. Otherwise I'll bet 2 more days of oxi will take care of it. Now I am soaking some of the aprons.

For the record, I'm using the Dollar Tree Oxi - LA's Original I think it's called - or maybe Totally Awesome. I'm using one scoop into a bucket full of hot water, I'd guess 2 gallons. I agitate it whenever I go by, maybe once or twice a day. Today I dumped the whole bucket of dirty oxy water right into the washer along with detergent and a regular load's worth of water.

Thanks for the suggestions ladies!!

The sunlight helped the last 2 pillowcases a lot. There are just the tinest of dots left on them. Almost all of the stains are gone.

I have now washed and line dried all the stained linens. I used the Dollar Tree brand of Oxy cleaner because that's what I had in the house. I mixed a bucket full of hot water with 1 scoop of the cleaner and let my fabrics soak for at least 2 days. Then I machine washed them. I put the oxi water from the bucket right into the washer and added detergent. I line dried them in the sun.

95% of the items came out perfectly clean. A couple pieces still have some stains. Now I'll put them all away until I find a use for them. At least they are clean. Thanks for everyone's help and I hope this thread helps someone else too!