Sew-n-Sew

We recently moved my 90 year old uncle out of his home where he has lived since the 1930s. Needless to say we found a lot of "treasures" and "keepsakes". He & my mom, 6 other siblings, their parents, and a grandpa lived in this one bdrm 1300 sf home. The still unfinished basement used to house many beds! Over the years it became the storage unit for many of the siblings. One thing I snatched up was a wool cap warn by my grandpa or great grandpa maybe. I would like to know the best way to clean it. It is in excellent shape, albeit the smell and grime on it. Also, what is the best way to clean the old lace, collars for dresses, crocheted purse, etc?

mollymct

With my knitted wool items, I usually fill a tub with cool water and use a squirt of shampoo! Aggitate the shampoo in the water before you add the cap. Allow to soak a few minutes. You may gently squeeze the soapy water through the cap, but you don't want to create a lot of friction. Rinse in water of the same temperature.

I usually roll my knits in a towel, or you could gently press out extra water between towels. I don't know what type of cap--you may be able to just lay it flat to dry--just shape it gently if needed with your fingers. If I need to "shape" something, I might stuff it with balled up plastic grocery bags!

Sew-n-Sew

Thanks for the reply; the cap I have is not knitted from yarn. It is sewn with wool fabric (hunter type hat), with flaps that fold up or come down to cover your ears.

Mimito2

I found the link below-- enjoy your treasures. I have a small box of quilt pieces that my DH Grandmother paper pieced around 1890. I am planning to frame them in double glass and give them to my DGS when they are old enough to appreciate them.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4963654_clean-wool-hats.html

erstan947

I think I would hand wash in cool water with Woolite or have it dry cleaned.

Kas

I vote for dry cleaning.

MZStitch

After reading that article that Mimito 2 gave you I think I would be too nervous to try to clean such a treasure myself! Maybe the best thing is to bring it to a professional. Make sure its someone you trust, and if you don't have a cleaner, than ask lots of questions before just leaving it in thier hands! Sounds like a tresure to keep!

Sew-n-Sew

Thanks for all your tips! As far as the fabric stash that I found (probably was my grandmother's, & she was born early 1890s), I washed it all up, and hope to incorporate pieces into wall hangings for family members. I also found a small tocacco tin stuffed full of newspaper patterns for doll clothes!! One paper had the date of 1899 on it, and a few were in german. I sure wish I new the history of those patterns...

Melanie S.

I use Charlie's Soap and cool water. Squeeze gently, no wringing. Drip dry. You can find the soap by Googling Charlie's Soap. The shipping is free which is nice because soap is heavy. It's odorless, environmentally friendly and comes in a cute fabric bag. Okay, I have a minor obsession with cleaning products :-)

ckcowl

when you take a wool item to a dry cleaners it is very seldom actually dry cleaned, wool is washed with cold water, detergent and shaped to dry. i would not use plastic bags to shape it, they will keep it wet, i have used newsprint paper and brown paper bags work well. it should wash up very well i am washing wool almost every day, it is by far my favorite fabric to work with. as for the laces, i put mine from my great grandmother into net laundry bag and washed on gentle, dried them in the bag too. they came out well, i had some antique embroidered hankies too that cleaned up well being washed in the bag. if the lace is fragile i would wash it by hand in the sink. what i had held up without any problems.