I have many old hand embroidered pillow cases that have turned yellowish brown. They are about 60 years old and very beautiful but I have never found anything to take out the yellow. I'm afraid bleach would take the color out of the embroidery. Are there any other solutions?
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Walmarts sells borax for about 2.60 something a box.
Wash with hot water, detergent and one cup borax.
Let dry in air. See how much that helped. Then, assuming it didn't quite solve the problem see if you can find a bar of PLAIN homemade soap, preferably a simple lye-soap. That's what they call just basic homemade soap, from scratch. Sounds awful, but it's not. My SIL restores many linens she gets from garage and estate sales by washing repeatedly with hot water and grated plain soap. You put hot water in your washer, put in about 1/4 cup (not much needed)
I add borax to anything that has stain or odor problems. I don't think it hurts.
I've been interested in textiles for a long time and the simpler the better for the most part. Sometimes putting a towel under whatever you are trying to remove and using white vinegar on a washcloth to dab helps so maybe a wash with plain white vinegar might help. A cup to a load or so, probably doesn't matter what temp if cloth is cotton.
I've seen my SIL work miracles just by being patient so as many times as it takes would be my suggestion.
Maybe use only the gentle agitation, or even mostly soaking since the fabric is old.
I've had very good results with OxyClean. I boil some water (just so that it's very hot), put a scoop of OxyClean in a bucket, pour the hot water over it, then add some more hot tap water, stir to dissilve, then add my yellowed garment. sometimes I have to soak it for a day or two but this usually gets it all clean without fading the brights.
I just tried this the other day. I have old pillowcases from MY grandma that have colored crochet edging (I'm 61 so you know these are OLD) but that had browned. The boiling water and oxyclean soak worked AMAZINGLY well on the dingy parts and didn't bother the red color in the crochet. Perfect solution to my problem.
I usually purchase the generic brand OxyClean from the dollar stores and I can attest that it really cleans.
Our two bed pillows really needed a thorough cleaning, especially my husbands because he sweats so much. I stuffed two pillows in the front loader washer in our apartment complex and added 2 scoops of my generic brand OxyClean along with one capful of liquid detergent.
Both of the pillows looked brand new. So it will definitely clean your embroidered pillow cases.
If the fabric is antique, the really hot water may damage it a bit. Try good warm water, instead, filling a dish pan or bucket. Add several denture cleaning tables (they're good for removing toilet stains, too) and then immerse the pillowcases. You shouldn't have to scrub them, just let them soak.
Then put them into a mesh bag which you can pick up in most Dollar Stores, and add them to the laundry. The bags are used for washing "delicates" in the washer. I sure hope this helps!
I would definitely try the borax soak or use fels naptha/borax soak for your vintage linens. I would not use oxiclean base products as they are a newer product.
You can find something at Wal-Mart called WHISH not wisk. You can also use 20 Mule Borateam to soak them in and wash them in. Good luck. Mary
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