It depends on what the stain is, as to which cleaner will clean it up. I used boiling water followed by lemon juice to get coffee stains out of my grandmother's white cotton table cloth. For stains like blood or grass, use the enzyme cleaner sold to remove pet urine odor. For mildew, it needs an oxidator, an oxygen bleach like oxyclean. For oil, Dawn Dish detergent. There are books which you should be able to find at your library that tell you how to remove stains depending on the fabric and the type of stain. With old textiles you have to guess at the type of stain and sometimes the type of fabric.