I spent the day yesterday with a good friend. She just got 3 beautiful antique dresses. They are old family heirlooms and we dated them to be at least 175 years old. One is black, made from a satin/shinny cotton looking fabric. It was very wrinkled and we were going to just steam it to clean it, but as it was being steamed the smell of body odors was so intense that we had to wash it. It came out great after. Another one was a bride dress, made 100% of lace. That one also came out fine and is not on a dress form looking fabulous. The third on, is also made of lace, but it has some holes in it. it has 3 stains in the back that look like they were blood, but no way to know for sure. We tried different thing but it did not clean with anything. At this point we are even trying Awesome, since the stains made the dress worthless. Any suggestions?

Try table salt. Maybe there is something in this post that will help: http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-43563-1.htm. It is about blood on fabric.
Are we going to get to see pictures of these beauties?

http://www.retroclean.com/

I just recommended this to a woman who had tobacco stain on linens. Not sure if it would work on blood though. It's great stuff for vintage textiles.

Wow, what a find!!!!!!!!!! :D
Oh yeah, send pics!!!

Dorothy, I went to the link and it came up as an error :(
Can you try it???

If it is white or cream colored, you can try soaking it in a mixture of cream of tartar and water or try dabbing a little hydrogen peroxide on it. These will only work on cream or white colors and always spot test to make sure it won't bleach or fade your item. Good luck.

This may sound disqusting but it is free. Try spit. The enzymes in spit will break down blood, even old and dried.

Try using our search field and see if it comes up.
The title is:
Who can say: "The blood droplets on the quilt are mine?"
I couldn't get the link to work either. Don't know why. http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-43563-1.htm
I will be watching to see if you get it.

Maride isn't signed in right now. Please, can someone else try this link and our search field to see if they can get the post we did on this.

Hancock Fabrics and several quilt stores carry products that are designed to remove specific stains. I'd check there if I were you.

Dorothy, I found that post and bookmarked it b/c of all the good info. THANKS!!!!!!!! :D
You sure have a good memory :D:D

peroxide removes alot of blood.

This is weird! I couldn't get the link to come up in the previous 2 but this one comes up and I can't see the difference in how it's posted...

:shock: :shock: :shock:

You know what I think is happening? The other links are including the period at the end of my sentence. I bet that is what it is. Glad to know it is working.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-43563-1.htm
So many thanks for working with me on it.
Maride, try it now.

VOILA!!!!!!!!! :D

I got the link below to open up okay

would love to see pictures of the antique dresses

Thanks everyone. I have to admit I now know that spit does not remove blood that is 150 years old, or it is not blood. One or the other. We will post pics of the dresses as soon as they are ready to go on the dress form. I went back to my friend's today and the dress form is dressed on black. We were trying to fix a rip under the arm. Sometime next week I will go back.

Maria

:lol: :lol: :lol: At least it was free! And I swear it does work.